With an addition of 6.27 million subscribers in the month of May, the total GSM subscriber base climbed up to 205 million users. However, there was a decline in the total number of subscribers added in comparison to April, with a decline of 177,000.
Bharti Airtel Ltd, the country?s largest mobile service provider leads the pack with the highest number of additions of 2.4 million subscribers, taking the company?s subscriber base up-to 66.8 million. With these figures the company has a market share of 32.52%.
Vodafone Essar with a market share of 23.10% added 1.68 million subscribers to its kitty, with which the company?s user base increased to 47.4 million at the end of May.
However, BPL mobile and Spice Communication were the only GSM players, who despite an absolute hike in the total number of additions, experienced a decline in the number of subscribers added in comparison to the previous month.
BPL mobile, which currently operates only in Mumbai, added 17,000 mobile subscribers in May, almost 1,500 less than what it added in April. With this, BPL mobile?s subscriber base has increased to 1.33 million.
Spice Communication, which has once again been in talks with Idea Cellular for a possible merger for the past one week, added 134,000 subscribers for the month. This is approximately 2,000 subscribers less than the company?s addition for the month of April.
BK Modi, chairman, Idea Cellular has been in talks with Idea Cellular for selling his stake of 40.8% in the company. Spice currently operates in two circles of Karnataka and Punjab, and has been allotted a license for operations in four more circles.
The AV Birla Group company Idea Cellular, which has a 12.72% of the market, added 1.1 million customers, 62,000 more than what the company added in April. The total subscriber base of the company went up to 26 million at the month-end.
The third largest GSM telco, state-run BSNL, added over 314,000 subscribers for the month, taking its total user base count up to over 36 million in May.
