Mobile operators add 8 mn users in March

Bharti, Idea lead gains

Telecom operators added 8 million mobile subscribers in March, taking the total telephone user base in the country to 951.34 million, according to data released by sectoral regulator Trai today.

The growth was led by country's largest operator Bharti Airtel, which added 2.50 million new subscribers, taking its mobile phone base in the country to 181.27 million in March.

Idea Cellular, which had added the maximum number of users in February, saw the second highest addition at 2.01 million new users in March.

Uninor, Reliance Communications, Vodafone and Sistema Shyam Teleservices added 1.29 million, 1.04 million, 1.02 million and 0.42 million new users, respectively.

The overall teledensity (telephones per 100 people) in India reached 78.66% in March.

State-owned BSNL and MTNL added 0.76 million and 58,681 new users in March, respectively. Their subscriber base stood at 98.51 million and 5.83 million, respectively.

Meanwhile, Aircel, Tata Teleservices and Videcon lost 0.68 million, 0.14 million and 0.24 million subscribers in the reported period.

Wireline subscriber base declined 0.48% to 32.17 million at the end of March, 2012.

Broadband subscriber base increased from 13.54 million at the end of February to 13.79 million at March-end.

The number of requests from subscribers to change their operators under the Mobile Number Portability (MNP) facility stood at 4.76 million in March.