TELECOM SECTOR

Hutchison Essar (HEL) has become the second largest GSM player in the country, displacing state-owned BSNL. The company, in which UK-based Vodafone had recently picked up a majority stake, surpassed BSNL after it recorded a 5.4 per cent growth in its subscriber base during May 2007, with the addition of over 1.5 million subscribers during this period, when compared to 0.24 million for the public-sector giant.According to the latest data compiled by the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), the industry association representing all GSM operators, HEL had a little over 29.2 million subscribers and a market share of 22.36 per cent (in the GSM space) as of May-end, against 27.9 million and 21.43 per cent respectively for BSNL. Overall, HEL is now the third largest cellular operator in the country after Bharti Airtel, which has over 40.7 million subscribers and Reliance Communications (RCOM) at 30.5 million.