>TELEPEDIA: Indian wireless base touches 500m (PRABHUDAS LILLADHER)

■ Subscriber net addition strong in November 2009: Subscriber net additions garnered by telcos were highest ever in November 2009, with net additions of ~17.5m subscribers, a growth of 5.4% MoM and 70% YoY.

■ Tata Teleservices’ (Tata’s) solid performance continues: Tata’s net additions were at 3.3m subscriber in November 2009, up 290% YoY but a dip of 14% MoM. Tata has added ~16.8m subscribers over the last five months post the launch of their GSM services. Mumbai & Maharashtra added 0.46m subscribers or 14% of the overall net additions of Tata for the month of November 2009.

■ Bharti Airtel’s (Bharti’s) net additions back to ~2.8m mark: Bharti added 2.8m subscribers, up 4% MoM. It had maintained a stable run-rate of ~2.76m subscribers YTD for CY09. Increase in competitive offerings like per second billing and attractive outgoing calling options, has hurt the subscriber market share of Bharti by 160bps YTD.

■ Reliance Communication’s (RCom’s) net additions jumps to 2.8m: RCom added ~2.8m subscribers (CDMA+GSM), up 33% MoM. It has launched aggressive schemes like pay per call, flat 50paise/min and per second billing which has started resulting in buoyant subscriber net additions.

■ Vodafone Essar (Vodafone) net additions down to ~2.8m: Vodafone subscriber net additions slowed to 2.8m, after a strong October month where they added 3m subscribers. With this pickup, they have bucked their trend of slower net additions over the last six months. Vodafone, too, has started offering the ‘per second billing’ scheme.

To read the full report: TELECOM SECTOR