GSM subscriber base crosses 325 million in July

India,the third largest GSM market in the world after China and Russia, has added 9.48 million GSM subscribers in July, taking the country's total GSM
subscriber base to 325.70 million.

According to the Cellular Operators' Association of India (COAI), GSM operators added 9.5 million subscribers in June, an increase of 6.5 per cent, compared with 8.9 million added in June.

According to COAI, Bharti Airtel maintained its leadership in the Indian GSM market by adding 2.8 million subscribers in July, taking its total GSM subscriber base to 105.18 million and increasing its market share to 32.29 per cent.

Vodafone Essar added 2.2 million, taking its GSM subscribers base 78.6 million and increasing its market share to 24.2 per cent.

All the other GSM operators also increased their GSM subscriber base last month. Idea Cellular added 1.42 million subscribers, taking its total subscriber base to 48.52 million while Bharat Sanchar Nigam added 1.62 million new customers to take its total subscriber base to 50.7 million.

Aircel added 1.3 million new GSM users in the same month, expanding its subscriber base to 23.10 million, while MTNL, added 35,413 subscribers taking its total subscriber base to 4.3 million.

The COAI data for July does not include the subscriber addition of Reliance Communications, which said that it would release its data separately.