Bharti Airtel, which has the biggest mobile telephony user base, is now the largest telecom player in the country, going by subscriber numbers as of end of July.

So far, state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) was No 1 mainly because of its strong fixed line user base, even as GSM (global systems for mobile communications) major Bharti was inching towards it.

While Bharti started its journey in the mid-90s, the state-owned incumbent has been around for decades.

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Bharti has 72 million wireless subscribers as of July-end, and 2.31 million fixed line users at June-end, which totals to 74.31 million subscribers.

BSNL, on the other hand, has a GSM base of 37.9 million as of July-end, and had around 35 million fixed and fixed wireless users at the end of June. That totals to around 73 million.

The assumption that Bharti has the maximum subscriber base now is based on the trend that BSNL's fixed line subscriber base has been declining every month for at least two years at a stretch, and Bharti's fixed line numbers are growing.

Meanwhile, industry sources confirmed to DNA Money that Bharti has actually crossed BSNL in subscriber base.

While the GSM subscriber data was issued by the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) on Wednesday, the complete industry data, including fixed line numbers, would be issued soon by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).

To give a boost to BSNL's falling numbers in fixed telephony, the government recently exempted it from licence fees in rural areas.

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Also, both BSNL and MTNL have been granted spectrum ahead of others to start 3G (third generation telecom) services. The two will not have to participate in the 3G auction process, but will have to match the highest bid price.

For years the state-run telcos were the only fixed line operators in the country. Now, private players, including Bharti, Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices, offer the same services.

The fixed line subscriber base has been declining steadily, and BSNL has taken the maximum hit. As of end of June, there were 325.78 million phone subscribers, of which, 38.92 million were fixed line users.

According to COAI data, there are 218.9 million GSM subscribers in the country as of July.

While Bharti has 32.92% share of the GSM market, Vodafone Essar has 23.27%, BSNL 17.32%, Idea 12.9% and Aircel 5.7%. There are others, including Reliance Telecom, Spice, MTNL and BPL. Reliance Telecom figures are not included in the COAI data.

Source:sify.com