Indian operators add 8.3m users

Indian GSM mobile operators added 8.3 million users in May, taking the total user base to 306.45 million, data from the Cellular Operators' Association of India showed last week, reports Reuters.

The pace of monthly additions slowed for a second month, down from 8.97 million in April and 10.8 million in March, hit mainly by slowing additions by state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL).

BSNL saw its subscribers additions slow to 453 582 in May, less than half of April's 1.04 million and less than one-fifth of record additions of 2.50 million in March.

The cellular phone companies in Pakistan hailed the government announcement to reduce different taxes on telephony services and termed it positive for the growth of subscribers in the next fiscal year, says Daily Times.

In the Finance Bill 2009-10, the 'Federal excise duty/general sales tax' (FED/GST) has been reduced to 19% from 21%. The SIM Activation Tax has been slashed to Rs 250 (R25) from Rs 500 (R49.7) per connection, Rs 250 (R25) regulatory duty has been removed and custom duties have been cut to Rs 250 (R25) from Rs 500 (R49.7) per handset.

Except the proposed cut in FED/GST, the stakeholders of the cellular phone sector have hailed other government measures.

Nigeria is still Africa's leading telecommunications market with seven million new subscriptions in the last quarter of 2008, the Informa Telecoms and Media's World Cellular Information Service have said, according to Triumph.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Informa and Media's World in their 2008 report said Africa's telecommunication markets were still showing no sign of economic downturn.

“Growth remains robust in Nigeria: in the last quarter of 2008, the West Africa market recorded the highest number of net additions since GSM was introduced in 2001, the report said.