India loses 6.41 mn mobile subscribers in August; Idea hit the hardest with loss of 2.89 mn subscribers: COAI

In a report provided by the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), it showed that there has been a loss of 6.41 million mobile subscribers from the month of July to August. [caption id=“attachment_3469872” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. Reuters[/caption] The report said that the total number of all India mobile subscribers in the month of August was 948.54 million. This is a drop from the 954.95 million mobile subscribers in the month of July. According to a report by Indian Express, Bharti Airtel was standing at the top with a market share of 29.3 percent. Meanwhile, Vodafone and Idea Cellular were close with a difference of 17.08 million subscribers. Vodafone came second and Idea Cellular came third. When it came to the loss in subscriber base, it was Idea Cellular that lost the most subscribers (2,898,508), followed by Vodafone at 2,404,807 customers. Least was by Airtel which was around two million. Since it was all India, Kerela had the maximum mobile subscriber additions, while UP (East) Circle had 84.07 million mobile subscribers. Uttar Pradesh had the highest total number of mobile subscribers. The report quoted director general COAI, Rajan S Mathews, saying, “Mobile connectivity and data services have played a pivotal role in bridging the digital divide and moving India towards a truly equitable and democratic nation. The telecom industry, therefore, deserves urgent relief and an immediate intervention to encourage policy and regulatory stability, and facilitate growth, innovation and investment.” **Talking** about the COAI, the appetite for spectrum is likely to be felt only by 2018 end or the year after that. This happening because the **telecom** operators are taking stock of their holdings amid ongoing consolidation, cellular industry body COAI said. Telecom regulatory authority of India (TRAI) has begun the process of consultation for next round of spectrum auction across nine bands which include 60 percent of the unsold radiowaves in the last auction and 275 MHz from the two new 5G bands. It had also sought fresh views on valuation methodology for the prized 700 MHz, a band that found no takers in the last auction given the reserve or base price of Rs 11,485 crore per MHz in 2016