INDIA'S GSM SUBSCRIBER BASE CROSSES 580 MILLION SUBSCRIBERS

The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) has released some interesting data about the Indian GSM mobile subscriber base, and how various operators are faring. The total GSM subscriber base increased by 1.95 per cent in the month of April with 11.11 million new subscribers – taking the total up to a nice and massive 580.67 million. April’s growth figures are much lower than the first three months of 2011,which saw 13-15 million new subscribers each, and,quite a bit lower than monthly figures over the past year.
Among the operators, Airtel captured a large fraction of the new subscribers, with 2.41 million new customers, bringing its total up to 164.61 million, or roughly 28% of the total subscriber base.Idea Cellular was the leader in April, with 2.45 new subscribers, bringing its user base up to 91.95 million.
Vodafone gained nearly as many new subscribers as Airtel – 2.4 million - totalling to 136.98 million. Uninor 1.45 million subscribers, bringing its total subscriber base to 24.24 million. BSNL and MTNL added 689,361 and 14,633 customers respectively, making 87.14 million and 5.21 million customers in total.
Some experts are attributing the reduced growth to more stringent verification norms, and, some, to it being a seasonal trend – 11.18 million GSM subscribers were added in April 2010, compared to nearly 14 million in March.