Bharti Airtel continues its dominance in the telecom industry with the addition of 2.45 million GSM subscribers in the month of May this year, which is the highest count of mobile customer addition for the month. Vodafone Essar follows Airtel with the addition of 2.44 million new subscribers taking its total count to 139.4 million. According to the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) data, Airtel subscriber base has now crossed 167 million.
9.5 New GSM Subscribers In India
COAI today released the data of the GSM subscriber base for May, 2011. The fresh addition has been at a slightly lower rate compared to the previous months. Total 9.5 million new users have been added in May, 2011 at a monthly development rate of 1.64%. The all-India GSM subscriber base has now reached to 590.19 million.
IDEA cellular added 1.8 million fresh subscribers in May, 2011 and now its total subscribers count has reached 93.7 million. Aircel had an increase in its subscriber’s count by 1.1 million reaching the total subscriber base of 57 million.
The country’s Pan India 3G Mobile service operator, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) notched 0.47 million new subscribers taking its total subscribers base to 87.6 million. Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) has added 20,604 fresh users in the last month, pumping its total base to 5.23 million.
Uninor, the young GSM operator in India, has notched 1.14 million new GSM users and has crossed the total subscriber milestone of 25 million. STel could manage only 1,64,259 new users from five telecom circles. Etisalat DB/Cheers Mobile added 94,193 subscribers in its 13 telecom circles. Videocon, on the other hand, has observed negative growth with the loss of 1,86,161 subscribers.
Note: COAI GSM subscriber base does not include the bases of Tata Docomo and Reliance GSM.