Idea Cellular Top Gainer From Number Portability - India Government
August 11 2011 - 1:57AM
Dow Jones News
Idea Cellular Ltd. (532822.BY) has gained the highest number of
customers and Reliance Communications Ltd. (532712.BY) lost more
subscribers than any other company due to a facility that allows
mobile-phone users to change service providers while retaining
their phone numbers, the Indian government said.
India launched the facility, mobile number portability, in the
northern state of Haryana Nov. 25 and extended it across the
country Jan. 20. According to data from the telecommunications
regulator, about 13 million subscribers changed their service
providers until the end of June, when India had 851.7 million
mobile-phone users.
Idea Cellular gained 824,845 users until the end of June via
number portability, while Reliance Communications lost 1.2 million
subscribers, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal told the lower house of
India's parliament Wednesday.
Reliance Communications is India's second-largest mobile-phone
company based on number of customers, while Idea Cellular is the
fourth biggest.
Third-ranked Vodafone-Essar Ltd., the Indian unit of Vodafone
Group PLC (VOD.LN), got 711,135 customers via the facility, while
market leader Bharti Airtel Ltd. (532454.BY) gained 650,599 users,
he said.
State-run Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. (500108.BY) and Bharat
Sanchar Nigam Ltd. lost 40,366 and 573,142 subscribers,
respectively.
The users who opted out of the state-run companies had mainly
cited network and tariff issues for their decision, Sibal told
lawmakers.
-By R. Jai Krishna, Dow Jones Newswires, +91-11-4356 3333;
krishna.jai@dowjones.com
Mahanagar (NYSE:MTE)
Historical Stock Chart
From Sep 2024 to Oct 2024
Mahanagar (NYSE:MTE)
Historical Stock Chart
From Oct 2023 to Oct 2024