Race among cellular cos. hots up

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, NOV 25. For the first time since the advent of cellular phones in the country, the race for the top spot among cellular companies has hotted up. Delhi's Bharti Cellular gained 14,000 customers in October and is just 1,500 away from the country's largest cellular operator, BPL Mobile of Mumbai. The total number of mobile phone subscribers at the end of October stood at 27.8 lakhs as against 26.2 lakhs in the previous month.

Despite the surge by Bharti, Mumbai, with over 4.5 lakh subscribers, remained the largest market for cellular phones. Delhi with 4.17 lakh customers was at the second place. There was no contest for the third place as Calcutta gained 13,000 customers in October as against 4,000 by the fourth placed Chennai. In both these cities, no company has crossed the five figure mark. In contrast three out of four companies in Mumbai and Delhi have over two lakh customers each.

Placements also remained unchanged in `A' category circles comprising the three southern States of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh besides Maharashtra and Gujarat. Andhra Pradesh with 1.34 lakh customers remained at the bottom and Maharashtra and Gujarat taking the first two slots. Both the western States are now poised to breach the two-lakh mark.

Tamil Nadu gained 8,000 customers to widen the gap with Karnataka for the third and fourth places. Just 1,000 subscribers separated the two States till last month. The performance by Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu becomes more impressive if the customers in Mumbai and Chennai are taken into account. In a similar vein, the show by Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh becomes a trifle disappointing because their figures include customers in the State capitals of Karnataka and Hyderabad.

BPL Cellular in Maharashtra joined Fascel in the one-lakh club in these States and Birla AT & T, BPL Cellular, Aircel Limited and Spice Communications seemed poised to cross one lakh subscribers by this year end.

While strong growth was generally seen in the A class States, only Kerala's performance was noteworthy among the eight B category States. Its subscriber base crossed two lakhs in October with both companies Escotel and BPL entering five figures. Apparently, the cellular culture is yet to catch up in the green revolution States of north India. The relatively impoverished eastern U.P. has more customers than Punjab, Haryana or U.P. (West). Though growth in Punjab and U.P. (west) has been somewhat hampered by the presence of just one company but Haryana with just 52,000 and 66,000 customers in Madhya Pradesh give credence to the belief that cellular phones are yet to make an impact in many mofussel areas of the country.

The rate of use of cellular phones continues to decrease from the metros to states with a higher rural population. Assam, the North East and Himachal Pradesh are yet to cross 10,000 subscribers apiece while Bihar has 40,000 and Orissa just 16,000.

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Section  : Business
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