Idea Cellular Top Gainer From Number Portability - India Government

Idea Cellular Ltd. (532822.BY) has gained the highest number of customers and Reliance Communications Ltd. (532712.BY) lost more subscribers than any other company due to a facility that allows mobile-phone users to change service providers while retaining their phone numbers, the Indian government said.

India launched the facility, mobile number portability, in the northern state of Haryana Nov. 25 and extended it across the country Jan. 20. According to data from the telecommunications regulator, about 13 million subscribers changed their service providers until the end of June, when India had 851.7 million mobile-phone users.

Idea Cellular gained 824,845 users until the end of June via number portability, while Reliance Communications lost 1.2 million subscribers, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal told the lower house of India's parliament Wednesday.

Reliance Communications is India's second-largest mobile-phone company based on number of customers, while Idea Cellular is the fourth biggest.

Third-ranked Vodafone-Essar Ltd., the Indian unit of Vodafone Group PLC (VOD.LN), got 711,135 customers via the facility, while market leader Bharti Airtel Ltd. (532454.BY) gained 650,599 users, he said.

State-run Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. (500108.BY) and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. lost 40,366 and 573,142 subscribers, respectively.

The users who opted out of the state-run companies had mainly cited network and tariff issues for their decision, Sibal told lawmakers.

-By R. Jai Krishna, Dow Jones Newswires, [phone]; [e-mail]