TABLE-India's mobile user base falls 2.9 pct in Dec to 865 mln

Feb 7 (Reuters) - India's mobile phone subscriber base
declined by a net 25.88 million, or 2.9 percent, in December to
864.72 million, the sixth straight monthly fall, due to a
slowdown in gross additions and as carriers continued to
disconnect inactive users in the world's second-biggest wireless
services market.
By comparison, China, the world's biggest mobile phone
market, posted a 0.8 percent monthly increase in the number of
mobile subscribers to 1.11 billion in December.

Below is a table of mobile phone subscriptions as of
December, based on data released on Thursday by India's
telecommunications regulator. (www.trai.gov.in)

LEADING COMPANIES:
NAME CHANGE (MLN) TOTAL USERS (MLN)
----------------------------------------------------------
Bharti Airtel -1.70 181.91
Vodafone India -3.29 147.48
Reliance Comm -15.59 118.53
Idea Cellular -0.20 113.95
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd 0.01 99.92
Tata Teleservices -2.96 69.56
Aircel -1.98 63.35
Unitech Wireless 0.92 41.52
Sistema Shyam TeleServices -0.79 14.88

SMALLER PLAYERS:
NAME ADDITIONS TOTAL USERS (MLN)
--------------------------------------------------------
MTNL -2,975 5.30
Videocon Tele -371,953 3.64
Loop -6,506 3.00
Quadrant (Formerly HFCL) 63,989 1.70
-------------------------------------------------------
NOTE:
* Active mobile subscriptions in December were 701.60
million, or about 81 percent of the total connections.
* Mobile connections per 100 people, known as tele-density,
was at 70.82 as of December. Mobile tele-density in urban areas
was 143.48, compared with 39.04 in rural areas.
* By end-December, 80.06 million mobile subscribers had
opted to change their service provider, since India allowed
mobile number portability in January 2011.
* The number of broadband users rose to 14.98 million in
December from 14.88 million in the previous month.
* The number of fixed-phone line subscribers fell to 30.79
million in December from 30.87 million in the previous month.
* Including fixed-phone lines, India had 895.51 million
phone users at the end of December, or a total tele-density of
73.34.

(Compiled by Devidutta Tripathy)