At the time of the first round of bidding for cellular circles, Category A circles were defined by those territories which were expected to generate a high user base and revenue. High GDP states like Maharashtra and Gujarat, therefore won the coveted title of Category A licences. However, experience is showing that it is not the richest state, but the state with the highest fixed phone waiting list-Kerala-which is emerging as the fastest growing subscriber base for cellular operators.

Maharashtra, which is at the top of `A' circles lags behind Kerala with 1.73 lakh subscribers-and all other circles are way behind. However, it must be noted that two metro circles, Delhi and Mumbai, have crossed the two lakh mark. Kerala which had only 45,000 subcribers in March 1999 had added 35,000 new users by the end of December 1999 and stood at 80,000. By May 2000 the user base in Kerala had rocketed to 1.25 lakh and by August it breached the 1.80 lakh mark. In the month of September alone it added 18,000 new users to reach the figure of 1.98 lakh at a growth rate of 10 per cent.

If it sustains this current rate of growth on a month-to-month basis, then Kerala would cross 2.2 lakh by October-end and by March 2001 it would have crossed the three lakh mark, thereby attaining a cellular penetration of one mobile per hundred people. There is one concern though: the profitability of the circle depends on the Average Revenue Per User (ARPU)-where Kerala is certainly not on top of the charts. But while,Kerala might not score on high usage, it certainly does win points on the subscriber base criterion for eligibility to enter the exclusive club of Category A circles.

National usage grows 100% in a year
Is the cellular phone industry in India finally coming of age? In the last one year, the Indian mobile user base has grown by a clipping 100 per cent. In the last nine months alone the mobile phone club has added one million subscribers. From the 1.33 million user base in September last year, the numbers have grown to 2.62 million by September 30 this year-which means a doubling the number of subscribers in 12 months.

In fact, the subscriber base was just one million at the beginning of 1999 and rose by just 3.3 lakh users by September, 1999. The BPL group with its operations in Mumbai, Maharashtra, Kerala and Tamil Nadu remains at the top with 5.1 lakh users, followed by the Bharti group with a total user base of a little over four lakh with its licenses and acquired companies in Delhi, Chennai, Andhra Pradesh, Karntaka and Himachal Pradesh.

Till the end of June, 2000 BPL had only 4.29 lakh users and Bharti only 3.66 lakh. In terms of number of users in individual circles or metros, Bharti Cellular remains pipped to the post by BPL since August 2000. BPL is ahead with 2.4 lakh subscribers in Mumbai compared to Bharti with 2.36 lakh users in Delhi, according to the figures of the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI). Among the metros, BPL Mobile commands the largest user base of 4.32 lakh between BPL Mobile and Hutchison Max, which markets the service under the Orange brand name. Calcutta has a total of 1.31 lakh users and Chennai has 82,500 users.

Hutchison has 3.56 lakh users between its Delhi and Mumbai operations. But if the user base of its 49 per cent stake acquisitions in Calcutta and Gujarat are also taken into account, Hutchison would be the top cellular company in India with 5.26 lakh users.

However, except for the Mumbai circle, Hutchison holds only 49 per cent stake in the other three operations. Among the other groups, Birla-AT&T-Tata (Batata) with operations in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh has about 2.27 lakh users, up from its June figure of 1.92 lakh, while Reliance has about 1.21 lakh users, up from its June figure of 92,000. Reliance has operations in Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa, Assam and North East.