India GSM subscribers continue to decline in June 2011

India's GSM user additions continued its declining trend, with the country adding 8.6 million users in June, the lowest since the past 31 months, and about a million lower than last month's figures.

The total number of GSM subscribers in the country stood at 598.7 million at the end of June 2011, with Bharti Airtel Ltd having the highest share, the country's largest mobile phone firm by subscribers, according to the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI).

According to COAI, the representative body of the GSM service providers, data, the previous lowest addition of 8 million users was recorded in November 2008.

Bharti Airtel, which grossed a total of 169.18 million users as of end-June, retained its leadership position with a 28.26 percent market share. The New Delhi-based firm added 2.12 million users during the month.

Vodafone-Essar, the third largest firm after Reliance Communications, also added 2.09 million subscribers, taking its total to 141.5 million. The unit of London-listed Vodafone Group's maintained its market share of about 23.63 percent a market share as on June, 2011. 

Aditya Birla group firm Idea Cellular added 1.35 million users during the month, increasing its total user base to 95.11 million, while GSM operator Aircel added 918,928 customers to take its subscriber base to 57.980 million.

State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) added 842,723 users, taking total user base to 88.46 million subscribers. The state-run telecom firm garnered a 14.77 percent market share, during the month under review.

Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL), another state-run firm, added 1,597 users during the month, taking its total subscriber base to 5.24 million and posted a market share of around 0.87 per cent.

Loop Mobile added 19,665 new users in June, taking its overall subscriber base to 3.15 million, while STel added 151,470 users taking it total to 3.31 million.

Uninor, the GSM joint venture of Norway's Telenor and India's leading real estate firm Unitech, added 943,924 users during the month, taking its total subscriber base to 26.33 million users. The company had a market share of around 4.40 percent as on June-end.

According to the data, the national capital region has the highest number of GSM subscribers at 25.5 million, closely followed by Mumbai at 21.6 million. Overall, the eastern Uttar Pradesh circle has the highest number of connections with 49.6 million, followed by Tamil Nadu with 46.2 million and Andhra Pradesh with 44.9 million users.

The country's telephone subscribers in India stood at 874.68 million as on May 31, 2011, while the country's overall tele-density (number of telephone connections per 100 people) stood at 73.11, according to data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).