GSM subscriber addition numbers fall 8 per cent in September

According to subscriber data announced by telecom companies, GSM subscriber additions fell almost 8 per cent in the month of September with the industry on the whole adding 8.5 million subscribers in September as against 9.3 million subscribers in August.

Market leader Bharti Airtel added 2.52 million mobile users in September as against 2.81 million in August a decline of 10 per cent in subscriber additions on month-on-month (MoM) basis.

This comes as the biggest month-on-month drop since the 22 per cent drop it saw in March 2005. Vodafone and Idea too reported 10 per cent drop in their monthly subscriber addition numbers.

Idea Cellular added 1.39 million mobile users in September versus 1.54 million in August, while government owned, MTNL added 16,271 GSM mobile users as against 20,150 in August.

Among unlisted players, Aircel added 1.31 million mobile users in September, which remained unchanged on month-on-month basis, (MoM). Vodafone added 1.97 million mobile users versus 2.19 million (MoM).

On an average, Bharti signed up around 2.76 million users per month during the first nine months of 2009 to aggregate 110.5 million users while Vodafone Essar total was 82.8 million mobile users for the same period at an average of 2.43 million per month.