Telcos add 7.27 million new subscribers in May: COAI
Telecom operators added 7.27 million new subscribers in May 2012, taking the total user base to 677 million, says the latest report released by the Cellular Operators Associations of India. The telecom operators have registered a growth of 1.08 percent from 670 million subscribers in the previous month. According to the COAI report, telcos have observed registered better growth, as compared to the previous month.
Telecom giant Bharti Airtel led from the front, gaining 2.01 million subscribers in May, upping its total user base to 185.30 million. According to the COAI, Airtel grabbed almost 28 percent of the new 7.27 million subscribers.
Maximum new connections were from UP East circle, which accounts for almost 20 percent of the total new subscribers, said the industry lobby.
Vodafone India, another telecom major, added 1.2 million customers in May, while its total user base shot up to 152.48 million. Idea Cellular had 1.75 million new subscribers, taking its total user base to nearly 116 million. Aircel however managed very few additions – 0.8 million new subscribers, as compared to 1.01 million recorded in April
State-run telcom operators, BSNL and MTNL, have continued to perform poorly. BSNL added just 1,735 new users, while MTNL lost 0.17 million customers in May. Total subscribers of BSNL and MTNL were 94.68 million and 5.32 million, respectively.
The COAI report does not include subcriber numbers from Reliance Communications. SSTL operates under MTS brand, whose licence was scrapped, reports its numbers to the CDMA body AUSPI. SSTL says it added 0.25 million users in May taking its total customer base to 16.31 million.
Also read,