The total GSM subscriber base in the country reached 141 million by the end of July – a growth of 4.23% over the previous month, according to the latest data released by the Cellular Operators Association India (COAI). About 5.76 million new users were added in the GSM segment during the month, compared with 5.3 million in June.
Bharti Airtel’s subscriber base touched 44 million, taking its market share to 31.58%. State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) grew 2% with an addition of about 5.5 lakh users in July, taking the total to 28 million users.
Vodafone Essar added 1.7 million subscribers during the month, against 1.5 added in June. With this the total subscriber base of Vodafone Essar at July-end stands at 32 million.
The gap between Vodafone and BSNL in terms of addition of new subscriber now stands at over 11 lakh. While Vodafone is gripping the market share of 23%, BSNL’s share has further fallen to 20%. In June its market share had fallen to 20.9% from 21.4% in May.
Idea Cellular added 6.7 lakh new users in July to take its subscriber base to 170 million, while Aircel added 3.8 lakh new subscribers.