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Indian Mobile Phone Subscriber Base to Pass 1 Billion Mark by March 2013
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India's Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) has issued a predication that the country's mobile phone subscriber base will pass the one billion mark by the end of the fiscal year - in March 2013.
The prediction comes despite a decline in the subscriber base for the country during the month of August according to just released figures from the telecoms regulator.
The customer base fell by 20.7 million to 944.81 million, marking the first ever decline in customer growth for the market. The drop was predominantly in the urban markets as expired SIM cards were not renewed, although the rural customer base continued to grow.
While the urban areas of the country are over penetrated with teledensity of 169 percent, in rural areas it is just 40.6 percent.
The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) confirmed that, "Most of the loss was due to the disconnection of unused numbers." Of the three largest networks, Bharti Airtel lost a net 1.9 million customers, Vodafone 1.56 million and Idea Cellular lost 1.65 million.
Despite the fall, the CMIE stated in its monthly report on the economy that "the total subscriber base is expected to reach 1,042 million by March 2013,"
Tags: [India]
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