India likely to be world's second wireless network next month

New Delhi, Apr 11 (UNI) With the highest ever GSM subscriber additions by over 7.6 million during March this year, GSM lobby COAI Director General TV Ramachandran has said he expects the industry will grow much faster than the current rate and become the world's second largest wireless network.

With this, the cumulative All India GSM subscriber base has now grown to 192.3 million in March 2008, up from 185.0 million in February 2008, a growth of about four per cent during last month.

''The COAI is delighted at the sustained escalation in the rate of growth of GSM mobile services,'' Mr Ramachandran said.

He predicted that the country's telecom industry will add another feather to its cap by becoming the second largest wireless network in the world, after China in April.

This tremendous growth has been primarily driven by the GSM industry, he pointed out.

Mr Ramachandran attributed this excellent performance of the GSM industry to ''a combination of factors, including aggressive network expansion, excellent affordability, ample choice of service and continuing customer pull for GSM.'' Among all circles, Category C circles witnessed the highest rate of growth at nearly 4.5 per cent. Within the Category C circles, the highest growth was recorded by the Assam at 6.9 per cent followed by Jammu and Kashmir Circle at 4.8 per cent.

In terms of growth, Category C circles were closely followed by Category A circles, which recorded a healthy growth of 4.4 per cent over the previous month. Maharashtra Circle recorded the highest growth at 6.5 per cent followed by Gujarat at 5.0.

Category B circles witnessed a growth of four per cent. Amongst the Category B circles, UP (West) recorded highest growth at 4.7 per cent followed by Rajasthan at four per cent.

The subscribers in Metro grew by 2.4 per cent over the previous month, with Chennai recording the highest growth at 2.8 per cent followed by Kolkata at 2.7 per cent.

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