By IANS
New Delhi : India added 6.19 million GSM mobile subscribers in the month of January, according to industry body Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI).
The data released Monday indicated that the number of GSM users till Jan 31, 2008 stood at 178.41 million.
This, however, excludes the number of users added by Reliance Communications, which is mainly a CDMA major but has GSM operations being developed across the country.
Bharti Airtel, India’s leading mobile phone service firm, added 2.25 million subscribers, taking its total base to 57.41 million.
Vodafone-Essar, promoted by British telecom giant Vodafone, registered a user base of 41.14 million by adding 1.28 million users last month as compared to 1.30 million in the previous month.
Aditya-Birla Group’s Idea Cellular added 900,658 users and currently has a total customer base of 2.19 million.
State-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd also added 1.07 million new users taking its total subscriber base to 33.74 million, COAI said.
India, one of the world’s fastest growing mobile phone markets, has set a target of achieving 500 million users by 2010. The country has already achieved 250 million users last year.