GSM net adds were at 9.18MM in Feb-09 vs. 9.3MM in Jan-09 – excluding RCOM taking the total GSM Wireless subscribers base in India to 277 mn. GSM operators reported combined subscriber net adds of 9.5MM in Feb-09 vs.9.6MM in Jan-09 (excluding the new RCOM GSM circles), down 1.2% M/M [Feb had only 28 days against 31 in Jan]; we have assumed that RCOM’s GSM net adds in old GSM circles in February were the same (391,000) as in Jan-09 (Feb-09 numbers have not been disclosed yet).
Bharti’s net adds in February were stable at 2.7MM with the total subscriber base to 91.1MM. Bharti needs to add 2MM in Mar-09 to reach our estimate of 93MM. Vodafone remains strong with reported net adds of 2.5MM (2.4MM in Jan-09).
BSNL net adds continue to improve, as the company added 1.5MM in Feb-09 vs. 1.3MM/874,000 in Jan-09/Dec-08