July saw 2.5 million more mobile users in India

July saw 2.5 million more mobile users in India

India has become one of the fastest growing mobile markets in the world. The telecom sector saw an incredible 2.49 million new mobile users in the month of July 2005 alone! This takes the total number of mobile users in India to an impressive 60.366 million as per the reports released by the concerned authorities. The Cellular Operators’ Association represents the nine mobile service providers in India, which uses the popular GSM standard for mobility.

They said that the user base of GSM mobile customer increased by around 1.954 million. This adds up the total of GSM users in India to around 46.874 million. The increase in the month of July is around 4.35% compared to the month of June. What is surprising is that the growth came in spite of the monsoon season, which generally keeps the consumer base away from the markets and especially the tough times Mumbai saw due to heavy rains.

Ramachandran, director general of the Cellular Operators’ Association said in a statement: “Traditionally, July shows weak demand because of widespread rains. So this growth is all the more heartening.” The coming months are expected to be even better for the industry as the calling rates touch an all time low and competition leads to interesting times in the industry.

Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd. the operators of Airtel Mobile Service brand alone added around 533,218 new GSM customers. They now have a personal user base or around 12.789 million customers. BSNL comes second with a customer base of 10.724 million and they added around 494,469 subscribers in July. Hutchison Essar Telecom Ltd. is third with 8.844 million customers at the end of the month of July.