India Wireless Telecom (February 2011) – Vodafone strengthens No.2 position, race between Idea and Reliance getting hotter

Indian wireless telecom saga continues…  

• World’s second largest mobile market, India continued its strong growth momentum by adding 20.2 million wireless telecom subscribers during February 2011


• Total wireless subscribers base in India stands at 791.38 million with 66.36% wireless tele-density


• Urban market added 12.91 million while rural market expanded by 7.29 million to reach wireless tele-density of 146.72% and 31.9%, respectively


• According to VLR data, India had 562.98 million active subscribers. Hence, actual wireless tele-density in India is 47.21% by February 2011 

Vodafone strengthens its No.2 position in Indian mobile market…

• Vodafone led the market with 17.61% of total monthly subscriber additions in February 2011 followed by Reliance (16.36%), Bharti (15.85%) and Idea (12.43%) making them top 4 players


• Vodafone’s active subscriber proportion improved from 77.68% in January 2011 to 78.41% in February 2011. While Idea’s figures rose from 90.34% to 92.65%


• Vodafone (and not Reliance) is the clear No. 2 in Indian mobile market in terms of total active subscriber base


• Idea (No.4 player) with 14.28% market share looks strong to displace Reliance from No.3 position in near future (probably 2011 year end)


• Interestingly, Bharti, Vodafone and Idea are joint shareholders of Indus (Largest independent tower company in the world with around 108,000 towers). Some indication for future in case of consolidation in Indian telecom space!


• BSNL/MTNL and Tata are considerably falling behind both in terms of net subscriber additions and % of active subscribers. While performance of other smaller players except Aircel is extremely poor raising question mark on their future!

Maharashtra remains the most promising market with highest subscriber additions, Tamil Nadu looses ground… 

India’s largest wireless telecom circle – Maharashtra added about 1.95 million wireless subscribers, largest in the country

Maharashtra has 77.45% active subscribers which are well above national average of 71.14%. Idea is the No.1 player in Maharashtra!

Tamil Nadu with negative active subscribers growth lost second position to U.P. (East) and dropped to No. 4

Growth of Madhya Pradesh is noteworthy as it added 1.3 million subscribers (4th in India) and has 75.22% active subscribers