Indian GSM telecom operators added 11.1 million subscribers to their kitty in April, according to the Cellular Operators’ Association of India (COAI).
However, the figure is lower than the March figure, when 14.49 million subscribers were added by the operators. With this, the total GSM subscriber base in the country has now climbed to 580.66 million.
Idea cellular was the biggest gainer with 2.45 million net additions followed by Airtel which increased its customer tally by 2.41 million. Vodafone also added 2.40 million subscribers taking its market share to 23.59 per cent.
The top three players in the GSM space now command 68 per cent market share, with Airtel leading the pack with 28.53 per cent market share and Idea Cellular at third place with 15.84 per cent.
Currently Airtel has 164 million subscribers, followed by Vodafone with 137 million users. Idea Cellular and BSNL follows next with 92 million and 87 million respectively. Aircel, which added 1.1 million subscribers in the month of April, is the fifth largest service provider with 56 million subscribers and is catching up fast.
New players like Loop Mobile, Stel and Etisalat have combined market share of less than 1.5 per cent. Videocon, which is another new player, could not sustain the momentum it got in March as it added only 134 thousand subscribers compared to 541 thousand last month. Videocon has a market share of 1.25 per cent.
The report does not include Reliance Communication and Tata Communications GSM (both offer CDMA also) figures as they have quit the association.
GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) is the most popular standard for mobile telephony systems in the world. CDMA is the other technology platform on which Indian telcos offer services. Tata Teleservices (TTSL), Reliance Communications and MTS are the main CDMA operators.