Bharti Airtel loses nearly 1 million mobile customers in Sept

Top Indian telecom carrier Bharti Airtel lost almost 1 million mobile customers in September, data released by an industry body showed, as carriers in the world's second-biggest wireless services market continue to disconnect inactive users in a clean-up drive. The total number of subscribers declined by 1.9 million in September.

Bharti's mobile customer base declined 0.98 million to 185.9 million as of September, the Cellular Operators Association of India said on Friday. It remains the biggest telecom operator with a market share of 27.68 per cent.

Second-ranked Vodafone India's mobile customers declined 0.69 million to 152.7 million during the month, while fourth-ranked Idea Cellular lost 0.51 million mobile customers to 115.5 million, the industry body said.

However, Uninor and Aircel were the only telecom operators to see a rise in subscribers in September. Uninor’s total customers increased by 32,662, while Aircel saw number of subscribers jump by 0.65 milion.

In terms of market share, Airtel led with 27.68 per cent followed by Vodafone (22.73  per cent), Idea (17.19 per cent), BSNL ( 14.33 per cent) and Aircel (9.92).

Copyright @ Thomson Reuters 2012