GSM firms add 9.18mn new subscribers in February

The cumulative all-India GSM subscriber base has now grown to 277mn in Feb'09, up from 267mn in Jan’09, a growth of about 3.43%. Company wise break-up shows that Bharti Airtel, leader in the GSM space, added 2.73mn new customers in February 2009 while Vodafone Essar saw its subscriber base swell by 2.58mn new users. Idea Cellular has added 1.5mn new customers which includes subscribers of Spice Communications. At the end of February, Bharti Airtel held a market share of 32.88% with a total of 91.11mn customers, while Vodafone Essar had a market share of 23.79% at 65.92mn subscribers. BSNL accounted for 15.94% of the GSM market at 44.18mn customers and Idea held a market share of 14.98% at 41.51mn. Reliance Communications (RCOM) has added 3.3mn wireless customers in February, the company said. RCOM had 66.3mn subscribers at end-January, data from the telecom regulator showed.