GSM mobile user base grow marginally to 66.44 crore in Apr

Subscriber base of GSM operators grew marginally to over 66.44 crore in April from 66.09 crore in the previous month, according to data released by industry body COAI.

The growth in the number of subscribers was led by Vodafone, which added around 14.2 lakh customers in April to take its subscriber base to 15.37 crore.

Videocon Mobile Services, which re-entered into business with fresh spectrum win, registered the highest growth rate of 6.49% in the industry. It added 1.30 lakh new users during the month.

Bharti Airtel, which added six lakh new users during the month, continues to be market leader with 28.41% share. The telecom major has a total subscriber base of 18.8 crore at the end of April.

Idea Cellular added 12.8 lakh new customers and the total customer base of the company stood at 12.28 crore in April.

The subscriber base of state-run BSNL stood at 9.71 crore at the end of October 2012, while MTNL lost over one lakh users during April bringing down its overall base to 47.19 lakh.

Aircel added 8,249 new users to take its base to six crore while Uninor added 1.63 lakh subscribers to increase its base to 3.18 crore during April.