GSM telcos add 3.79 million rural subscribers in October: COAI

GSM mobile operators added 3.79 million subscribers in rural areas in October to take the overall rural base to 311.33 million, industry body COAI said today.
The rural subscriber base stood at 307.54 million at the end of September, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said.
"GSM rural subscribers net additions in October 2014 were 3.79 million (with 1.23 per cent increase from previous month). All India GSM rural subscriber figures as of October 2014 stood at 311.33 million," COAI said.
Country's largest mobile operator Bharti Airtel added the maximum number of 1.66 million subscribers during the month taking its overall rural user base to 99.11 million.

Idea Cellular added 1.10 million in October to take its base to 79.33 million whereas Vodafone added 0.65 million and its overall rural base stood at 92.51 million.
Aircel and Uninor added 0.32 million and 0.06 million users during the period to take their rural bases to 27.13 million and 13.25 million respectively.
Vodafone and Idea Cellular have more percentage of rural subscribers in their overall bases whereas Airtel, Aircel and Uninor have higher percentage of urban subscribers.