In August last year, Aircel had introduced the now famous 50 paise per minute STD price for its mobile subscribers in the Eastern states of Bihar, West Bengal, Assam, Kolkata, North East and Orissa. Aircel till then was operational in these areas and in some areas of the South and J&K.

The company subsequently spread its wings across the other circles of the country as well starting March 2009 eventually setting its presence in 18 out of the total 22 circles in India. And the move has helped the company consolidate its position in the mobile space as it is observed that Aircel has managed to notch up 7.45 % of the incremental new subscribers added in a year. Compare this to the company’s share of 5.34 % in the overall wireless subscriber base. Overall the company managed to add 11.28 million new subscribers under its fold during the August’08 to August’09 period at an 85% growth rate.

India itself witnessed 150 million new additions during the one year period growing at a rate of 49.6%. Leading the list of mobile service providers for new subscriber additions is market leader, Bharti Airtel with more than 33 million additions while BSNL added 14 million new subscribers.

Following Airtel is RCom with the second highest subscriber base additions of 29.83 million and Vodafone Essar at number 3 position with 28.15 million additions.

BSNL, MTNL, Airtel and HFCL witnessed growth levels in subscriber base below the industry average of 49.6 %.