Tata Teleservices tops August subscriber addition list

Tata Teleservices, which provides both CDMA-based and GSM-based mobile service network under the name of Tata Indicom and Tata DoCoMo respectively, added 34,18,138 new subscribers in August 2009, a sequential growth of over 50 percent.

In August, India's biggest mobile operator Bharti Airtel added 2.8 million new subscribers while smaller rivals Vodafone and Reliance Communications increased their subscriber bases by 2.2 million and 2.3 million respectively.

According to a Tata release, this growth is nothing short of being phenomenal as other mobile operators showed flat or negative growth during the same period.

"This is fantastic news for us and a validation of all the efforts that have been put into making our network and services the best in the industry," said Anil Sardana, managing director of Tata Teleservices Ltd.

"We thank each one of our new and existing subscribers for showering so much love, affection and trust in us. This has far exceeded our expectations and enthuses us to provide the best telecom experience to our customers - in keeping with our larger objective of achieving customer affection and delight," he said.

While Tata Indicom is India's second largest CDMA-based mobile operator after Reliance Communications, its GSM services were launched recently following a tie-up with Japan's NTT DoCoMo in November 2008. Currently, Tata DoCoMo provide GSM services in eight circles and is planning to turn pan-India within the next few months.

"The impact of our efforts is just beginning to be felt. TTSL has so far launched Tata DoCoMo GSM services in eight circles and we are set to go live by the year-end. When the impact of that kicks in, our new subscriber addition is sure to witness an even further positive impact," Sardana said.

According to market watchers, Tata's move to be innovative by introducing a per-second billing for its GSM users and pay-per-call and pay-per-character-SMS for its CDMA customers have helped it increase its subscriber base.

However, the move is also an indicator that Indian consumers are price-conscious, despite enjoying the lowest telecom tariffs in the world.

However, analysts claim Tata's joy will be shortlived as rival operators too will begin offering innovative tariff packages to lure new subscribers. In fact, last week Bharti Airtel already announced a new tariff plan of a flat 50 paise per minute for both local and national calls for pre-paid users within the network, triggering speculation that the country's leading operator was responding to the latest steps by its competitor.

"Upstaging market leader Bharti in terms of subscriber addition during a particular month is not new. Tata managed to get ahead by offering attractive offers which were priced just right for the Indian customer. However, it remains to be seen if they can sustain this momentum. Earlier this year, both Vodafone and Reliance Communications overtook Bharti in terms of monthly subscriber addition but have failed to keep pace," a market analyst said.

"Besides, it will be a long, long time before Tata can actually catch up with Bharti in terms of total subscriber base," he added.

Currently, Bharti is India's No.1 telecom operator with a subscriber base close to 108 million (as of August-end) beating rivals Reliance Communications (83.5 million) and Vodafone Essar (80.8 million) by far. Tata Teleservices is currently ranked sixth in the country's telecom space behind state-owned BSNL (52 million) and Aditya Birla Group's Idea (50 million) with 42.8 million subscribers.