Mobile operators using the GSM technology added over 8.5 million users in June, up 2.90% over May taking the total GSM subscriber base to 315 million, the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said on Monday.

The operators had added 8.3 million users in May. The total subscriber base during June could go up a little as the figures do not include those of Reliance Telecom Ltd, the GSM arm of Reliance Communications Ltd. For instance, the total addition during May has subsequently been revised to 8.7 by COAI after including the additions by RTL.

During June, the country?s largest telecom operator Bharti Airtel added slightly over 2.8 million users taking its total subscriber count up to over 100 million, with a market share of 32.42%. The company registered a growth of 2.83% in its subscribers. Maximum additions for the company came from Bihar where it added over 33,000 users in June. However, its market share dipped by 0.06% during the month.

Vodafone-Essar, the country?s second largest GSM operator with a market share of 24.21% had a subscriber base of over 76 million during June. It added 2.3 million subscribers during the month, which was lower than the total additions made by it during the previous month.

It made the highest number of additions in the UP east circle with around 28,000 subscribers.

The country?s second largest telecom operator, the state-run BSNL?s subscriber base rose to 49 million during June, with over 89,000 additions. BSNL at the end of the month had a market share of around 15.54%. Its subscribers grew by 1.89% during June. Though the company continued to see a decline in its subscribers in Kolkata and the trend began in West Bengal, it was able to wrest the fall in subscribers in the Maharashtra, MP and Rajasthan circles.

Meanwhile, according to the quarterly figures released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India? (Trai), the total subscriber base of wireline and wireless services reached 429.72 million in the quarter ended March 31 2009, as against 384.79 million for quarter ending December 2008, registering an increase of 11.68% during the quarter. The tele-density for the same period reached 36.98 as compared to 33.23 for previous quarter ending December 2008. Also the subscriber base for wireless services increased from 346.89 to 391.76 million. Subscriber base of wireline service in the March quarter increased from 37.90 million to 37.96 million.

Rural wireline subscriber base in the same period decreased from 10.68 million to 10.58 million, showing a decrease of 0.93%. The rural wireless subscriber base at the same time increased from 93.15 million to 109.71 million, registering a growth of 17.77%.

According to the Trai figures, Internet wireline subscribers during the March quarter touched 13.54 million as compared to 12.85 million during the previous quarter registering a growth of approximately 5.30%.

The number of broadband subscribers (with a download speed of 256 Kbps or more) was 6.22 million for the quarter as against 5.52 million for the quarter ending December 2008. The growth rate of broadband subscribers in this quarter was 12.68%.

The Trai report also highlighted that the gross revenue of the telecom service sector for the same quarter was Rs 40,444 crore as against Rs 39,408 crore for the previous quarter recording an increase of 2.63%. The adjusted gross revenue for the quarter was Rs 29,725 crore as against Rs 28,940.40 crore for the previous quarter registering an increase of 2.71%.