CDMA users take a dip

NEW DELHI: The number of mobile services customers using Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) platform fell 4.7 percent in March after top operator Reliance Infocomm removed more than 800,000 subscribers who had defaulted.

The user base of CDMA operators dropped to 10.5 million customers in the past month, from 11.02 million in February, the association of CDMA operators said late on Thursday.

Overall, including mobile services based on the rival Global System for Mobile Communication, or GSM, platform, India's mobile user base stood at 51.45 million customers at the end of March, compared with about 52 million in February.

The fall in CDMA users was because Reliance Infocomm had cut 823,324 mobile user accounts because they failed to pay their bills and their addresses could not be reached, the association said.

Data showed Reliance Infocomm, 45 percent owned by petrochemicals giant Reliance Industries Ltd., also added 289,111 new customers in March, taking its total to 9.33 million.

Second-ranked Tata Teleservices reported a net addition of just 10,415 CDMA mobile users, swelling its user base to 1.089 million.

Both Reliance and Tata also compete furiously with 9 GSM-based players such as Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd. and Hutchison Max Telecom Ltd.

State-run carriers Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. do not report monthly CDMA numbers, but analysts estimate both firms collectively have more than a million CDMA mobile users.

GSM carriers, who control more than three-fourths of the fast expanding market, had 39.78 million customers at the end of February, and they are expected to report new additions in March later on Friday.

India is home to the world's fastest growing mobile market as cut-rate tariffs of as low as 2 to 3 U.S. cents are attracting new users in the sector that is widely forecast to cross 80 million by December.