Indian GSM subscriber numbers continued its upward trajectory after few months of decline amidst cleanup of inactive and low end consumers by the Telecom Companies. Top 3 GSM operators gained a total of 6.5mn subscribers (ex Uninor) in Feb-13 vs. a gain of 0.4mn in Jan-13. All of the net subscriber adds were by the incumbents – Idea, Bharti and Vodafone. Clearly, competition from challengers has reduced and the top three GSM players (Bharti, Vodafone and Idea) are able to maintain discipline. GSM Mobile Subscriber base in India at the end of Fb-2013 is 655 Mn.
Airtel, Idea and Vodafone added 2.9m, 2.4m and 2.2m respectively in Feb, which was a one-year high for all the three. The industry continues to consolidate towards the top 3 operators. In Feb-2013, they added 7.5m subscribers combined. Operators with lower active subscriber proportions continue to cleanup. Idea has 98% Active Subscriber Base followed by Airtel at 85% and Vodafone at 94%.
High churn and slowing gross adds led to negative net adds in 2Q/3QFY13. With lower churn, net adds are back into positive territory along with improvement in revenue per minute and possibly strong minutes growth as well for Q4-FY2013.