June sees 17.98 mn new mobile users

Telecom operators have added 17.98 million new users in June, taking the total telephone subscriber base to 671.69 million, the sectoral regulator Trai today said.

According to the data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), the wireless subscriber base (GSM, CDMA and fixed wireless phones) rose to 635.51 million by the end of June from 617.53 million in May, registering a growth of 2.91 per cent.

With this, the overall teledensity (telephones per 100 people) touched 56.83 per cent.

The growth in the wireless category was led by Bharti Airtel, which added 3 million users, taking its subscriber base to 136.6 million. Vodafone added 2.71 million subscribers in June, taking its user-base to 109 million. Idea Cellular and Aircel added 2.15 million and 1.60 million new users respectively during the reporting month.
    
Leading CDMA player Reliance Communications added 2.83 million new users, while Tata Teleservices added 2.32 million subscribers in the reporting month.
    
State-run telcos BSNL and MTNL added 1.01 million and 43,881 new users, respectively.
    
Meanwhile, the wireline subscriber base continued its declining trend and dropped to 36.18 million in June from 36.39 million in the previous month. BSNL and MTNL hold 84.09 per cent of the wireline market share.
    
The total broadband subscriber base increased 2.27 per cent to 9.45 million from 9.24 million in May, it said.