GSM user base rises to 70.34 crore in January: COAI

Airtel, Vodafone, Idea added 24 lakh, 17.8 lakh and 15.3 lakh users respectively

The GSM subscriber base in the country rose 1.24% in January to 70.34 crore with the addition of 85.8 lakh users, industry body COAI said today.

The number of subscribers at the end of December was 69.48 crore, the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said.

Market leader Bharti Airtel added 24.33 lakh users to take its subscriber base to 20.08 crore at the end of January. It has a market share of 28.55%.

Vodafone gained 17.8 lakh subscribers to take its total to 16.21 crore and a market share of 23.06%.

Idea Cellular added 15.32 lakh subscribers to take its base to 13.02 crore with a 18.51% market share.

Aircel had 15.32 lakh new users and Uninor 11.35 lakh, taking their totals to 6.84 crore and 3.39 crore, respectively.

Videocon gained 2.63 lakh subscribers for a user base of 42.33 lakh.

State run MTNL lost 95,861 users and is now left with 33.67 lakh subscribers. BSNL did not report its subscriber figures.