By IANS
New Delhi : India added six million GSM mobile subscribers in February to reach 184.67 million, industry body Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said Monday.
This, however, excludes the number of users added by Reliance Communications, which is mainly a CDMA major, a rival technology to GSM.
Bharti Airtel, India’s leading mobile phone service firm, added 2.25 million subscribers, taking its total base to 59.67 million and market share to 32.31 percent.
Vodafone-Essar, promoted by British telecom giant Vodafone, registered 42.55 million subscribers by adding 1.41 million new users in February against the preceding month’s 1.28 million.
Aditya-Birla Group’s Idea Cellular added 918,871 users last month, and as of Feb 29 had a total customer base of 22.87 million.
State-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) added 824,284 new users taking its total subscriber base to 34.57 million and a market share of 18.72 percent, COAI said.
India is the world’s fastest growing mobile phone market with the lowest call tariffs of below two US cents. The market has emerged as the cynosure of global telecom giants. The latest to make a foray is the Richard Branson-promoted Virgin Mobile, which announced it entry into the Indian market last week in partnership with Mumbai-based Tata Teleservices.
The Indian government has set a target of 500 million users by 2010; half of this, 250 million, was reached last year.