Mobile operators using the GSM technology added 6.3 million users in August, up 2.8% taking the total user base to 225 million. However, the addition during August was lower than that in July, when the operators added 6.7 million subscribers.
The country?s largest telelcom operator, Bharti Airtel continued to lead the pack in net addition as well as the total GSM subscriber base, which touched 74 million, followed by Vodafone-Essar and the state-owned BSNL, according to the figures released by the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) on Thursday.
While Bharti Airtel, which has a market, share of 33.15% added over 2.5 million customers with Karnatka followed by Rajasthan adding the maximum numbers to its tally. It recorded a growth of 3.6%. The company on Thursday also launched an innovation fund to finance innovation in telecommunication, dedicated an initial corpus of Rs 200 crore for the same.
Vodafone-Essar, which has the second largest GSM subscribers with a market share of 23.39% registered a growth of 3.43% with a total subscriber base of nearly 52 million, where it?s largest chunk of addition came from the Eastern UP circle where it added over 2 lakh users in August.
While BSNL, the country?s second larget telecom operator and the third largest GSM provider with a market share of 17.06% added almost 5.5 lakh customers.
With this it?s total GSM mobile subscriber base reached 38 million customers. The company?s subscriber base in fact eroded in Hayana, North East and the Assam circles. The state-run telco on Wednesday closed its bid, for the world?s largest ever telecom order of 93 million lines.
While Idea Cellular, which occupies the fourth slot in terms of the GSM mobile subscribers in the country and a market share of 12.98% saw a growth of 3.52% and added around 10 lakh customers to its base. With the addition its total subscriber base reached 29 million.