GSM SPs add 9.5 mn subscribers in July

The country's GSM telecom operators such as Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar and BSNL, have together added 9.5 mn subscribers taking their total subscriber base to 325.7 mn. According to the date released by the GSM representative body Cellular Operators' Association of India (COAI), the GSM operators have together added 9.5 mn users in July, against 8.9 mn users in June.

Top mobile operator Bharti Airtel added 2.8 mn new subscribers during the period, taking its total subscriber base to 105.1 mn. Airtel continues to be the market leader with a share of 32.3% in GSM space.

Vodafone Essar, which has a share of 24.2% added only 2.2 mn in July against 2.3 mn new connections in June. Its total user base was 78.6 mn at the end of July.Idea Cellular has added 1.6 mn users in July, while Aircel added 1.3 mn new users in the same month, COAI said.

The data did not include additions by Reliance Communications. state-owned telecom firm BSNL has cornered a market share of 15.6% with the addition of 1.6 mn users. The total subscriber base of BSNL stands at 50.7 mn. Another telecom PSU MTNL had seen an addition of 35,413 subscriber taking the total subscriber base to 4.3 mn.