GSM operators add 5 mln users in Sep; base expands to 786 mn

GSM telecom operators such as Airtel, Vodafone and Idea together added a whopping 4.9 million subscribers in September, taking the total mobile subscriber base over 786 million users.
But the September mobile subscriber data released by cellular association COAI today does not include subscribers onboarded by member Reliance Jio, which launched its commercial 4G services on September 5.
Jio -- which has been engaged in a war of words with the cellular body over issues like interconnect and voting rights -- has already gone on record to say that it notched over 16 million subscribers in the first month of operations.

No immediate comments were available from COAI on the reason for absence of Jio subscriber data.
"The non-metro cities have added more than 4.2 million subscribers, which is a significant addition and showcases our efforts in connecting the people in line with the Digital India initiative of the Government," Rajan S Mathews, Director General of COAI said in a statement.
The GSM subscriber addition in September works out to more than double the level seen in the previous month. In August, GSM subscribers numbers had risen by just over 2 million to 781 million customers.

The COAI release said that Bharti Airtel witnessed the maximum number of subscriber additions (2.43 million new subscribers) taking its total subscriber count to 259.9 million.

This is followed by Vodafone with 200.72 million subscribers and Idea Cellular with 178.82 million subscribers. Bharti Airtel continues to hold the maximum market share which is 33.07 percent, the COAI statement said.
"While the addition of mobile subscribers in the Indian telecom industry reflects subscriber additions across various circles, West Bengal and Andaman and Nicobar Islands circles has added maximum number of new mobile subscribers (0.56 million) in September 2016," the release added.
Karnataka came in next with 0.51 million, followed by Andhra Pradesh with 0.44 million new mobile subscribers.
According to the report, of 23 circles, Uttar Pradesh (East) has a highest number of mobile subscribers at 71.82 million, followed by Maharashtra (67.13 million) and Bihar (66.79 million) mobile subscribers.

"With addition of 4.93 million subscribers, the month of September witnessed the maximum number of net subscriber additions as compared to the last six months. The net subscriber additions in the month of August was 2.09 million and July was 2.08 million," it said.