Uncertainty Hits Uninor's Subscriber Growth

The unpredictable telecom environment for greenfield operators post the 2G license cancellation has impacted the subscriber growth of Uninorin India. According to the latest Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) report, the company's subscriber addition growth has reduced from 2.3 million in February to 1.2 million in March 2012, therefore making an almost 50 percent negative impact in its net additions. (See Telecom Industry Lambasts TRAI's Proposals, IndiaWatch: Uninor May Exit India and IndiaWatch: Unitech And Telenor At Loggerheads.)

The company's total subscriber additions has reduced from 31.48 percent in February, to 16.13 percent in March 2012. And it's not only Uninor that suffered from this uncertain environment. Players like Aircel Ltd., Videocon Telecommunications Ltd. and Tata Teleservices Ltd. lost 0.68 miillion, 0.24 million, and 0.14 million subscribers respectively in March 2012. This reflects the picture is not rosy for the operators.

The outcome of the verdict, however, has resulted in a big gain for the top telecom carriers such as Bharti Airtel Ltd. which added the maximum subscribers in March - 2.5 million new subscribers with a 31.2 percent share of total net additions. It means consumers are choosing big operators who are unaffected by the verdict.

Telenor recently threatened to discontinue its India operations after the TRAIs proposal of increasing the 2G base price by 10 folds which is in talks. This may further hamper Uninors subscriber growth, thus enabling the top-notch operators to grow their subscriber base instead.

- Rimit Singh, Correspondent, Light Reading India