By
Manoj Govindassamy on 20 September, 2009, 6:21 am
Back in September, 2004, India’s total mobile user base stood around 30 million. Starting then, mobile subscriptions in India has been touching new peaks every month. In fact, India is topping the list in mobile users growth, putting China to second place. India’s GSM-based mobile operators added close to 9 million users in June, up from 8.3 million in May, as per the data released by India GSM operators’ body.
Roughly after 5 years, India’s GSM subscriber base is around 315 million (data: June, 2009). The data compiled by Cellular Operators’ Association of India (COAI) does not include user figures for GSM operator Reliance Telecom and also doesn’t include CDMA users. Everything put together, India’s total mobile user base is around 400 million, I guess.
So with phenomenal growth in mobile users, the least that can be expected is mobile number exhaustion. Yeah, we are over with “9″ series numbers. Department of Telecommunication (DoT) has earlier moved “95″ series (was reserved for landline numbers to cellular operators) to general mobile users. But, that cannot handle the growth we are having. DoT has recently approved Reliance Communication (RComm) for using “8″ series numbering for mobile in NCR region, Maharastra and Goa.
Last Wednesday, RComm launched its GSM mobile numbers in “8″ series instead of usual “9″ series in the Delhi region. With the new numbering scheme, RComm can get a little Bonaza by selling fancy/special numbers in the “8″ series.
You may be interested in these articles:
- R-Comm launches 7 series mobile numbers in Tamil Nadu circle : Next time when you ask your friend or colleague his/her mobile number then don’t get confused or surprised if they speak out mobile numbers starting with the digit “7″. Yes, the “7″ series mobile numbers are rolled out in India and R-COMM is the first operator to make them available...
- India telecom user base grows faster and touches 500 Million : Even China is behind us. Here are more data from Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to prove the point.The total telephone subscriber base by the end of August 2009 was 494.07 Million.... So, India should have already crossed the 500 Million Telephone Subscriber Mark sometime in the month of...
- Indian Government requests Google for user data – What on piracy report numbers ? : Google, being a company believing in "freedom of opinions and expression" has set up a tool to show the stats of these numbers.The Indian government made 1061 data requests (requests for user information) and 142 data removal requests to Google over a six month period July 1st - Dec 31st...
- Rent a Movie from your mobile – BigFlix Movie Rentals reaching new users : BigFlix - Reliance Entertainment's movie rental and video on demand (VOD) business unit is reaching out new users through mobile apps. Software application named 'BigFlix Mobile Smart Client' can be downloaded to mobiles and the movie rental services are accessible through it. It is not a TV streaming app for...
- Reliance reaches 100 million subscribers : Reliance Communications (RCOM) has attained the landmark of 100 million subscribers of its mobile service. This includes both the GSM & CDMA customer base of RCOM. It is the 2nd company in India to attain this high subscriber, after Airtel achieved it last year. It is only the 4th largest...
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