GSM telcos add 14.7mn new subscribers in February

Indian GSM telecom operators added a 14.7mn new subscribers in February, lifting the all-India cellular subscriber base above 555mn, data released by the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) showed. With this, the total customers using the GSM mobile service in India have jumped to 555.06mn from 540.37mn in January, COAI said. Bharti Airtel added 3.2mn new users in February as opposed to 3.3mn in January, taking its total subscriber base to 159mn. The market share for Bharti Airtel stood at 28.65% as on February 28.



Vodafone Essar added 3.56mn new subscribers during the month under review compared to 3.1mn in the previous month, taking its total subscriber base to 130.92mn at the end of February. Vodafone Essar's market share was at 23.59%. Idea Cellular added 2.51mn new users during February, taking its total user base to 86.80mn, while Aircel added 1.67mn new customers, boosting its subscriber base to 53.50mn, COAI said.

Meanwhile, BSNL and Uninor added 1.51mn and 1.27mn new users, respectively, taking their subscriber base to 85.1mn and 21.58mn, respectively. Videocon added 0.55mn new users in February, taking its total base up, to 6.56mn customers. While Idea and BSNL has a market share of more than 15% each, Aircel holds just under 10% of India's GSM cellular market. Uninor, a new entrant, has seen its market share increase to nearly 4%.