Telecom subscribers base rises to 915 mn in Dec 2013

The number of telecom subscribers increased to 915 mn in December 2013 from 910.14 mn over the previous month, telecom regulator Trai said today.

Mobile subscriber base grew marginally to 88.63 crore while fixed line connections continued to shrink to 2.88 crore at December end.

Meanwhile, Vodafone was the major gainer during the month by adding 23 lakh new customers to its network. Its total user base was about 16 crore at December end, Trai said.

Bharti Airtel's subscribers increased by about 18 lakh customers in the month, taking its total user base to 19.84 crore.

State-run BSNL saw a decline of 20 lakh in its user base, followed by Tata Teleservices (76,256 users) and Loop Mobile by (25,152 users).

Videocon, which has operations in four circles, registered the highest growth rate of 8.15% in subscribers. It expanded user base by 3.5 lakh.

Aircel added 16 lakhs subscribers, while Uninor added 4.1 lakhs users. Idea Cellular added 2.7 lakhs, Reliance Communications 2.2 lakhs, Sistema Shyam (MTS) 2.1 lakhs and MTNL added 10,000 new customers.