India joins the 100 million mobile subscriber club
15 Jun 2006
With 42.5 lakh new subscribers for the month of May 2006, total mobile subscriber base in the country has gone past the 100 million or 10 crore mark. India now boasts the fifth largest base of mobile subscribers globally, behind China, US, Japan and Russia.
GSM players continue to grow at a faster clip, adding 31.5 lakh new subscribers during May 2006. Once again Bharti is the best performer, emerging as the only operator to add more than 10 lakh subscribers during the month.
Hutch - BPL combine overtook BSNL as the second largest GSM player during the month.
| Operator | Total subscribers in crore - May 06 | Total subscribers in crore - April 06 | May 06 additions in lakh | Market share in % |
| Bharti | 2.18 | 2.07 | 10.76 | 29 |
| Hutch | 1.81 | 1.74 | 6.91 | 25 |
| BSNL | 1.80 | 1.76 | 4.14 | 24 |
| Idea | 0.81 | 0.76 | 4.22 | 11 |
CDMA operators added 11 lakh new subscribers during the month, with Reliance adding 5.22 lakh and Tata Teleservices gaining 5.79 lakh subscribers.
Number of fixed line subscribers declined marginally during the month. Total telephone subscribers in the country increased to 14.5 crore taking the tele-density to 13.54 as of May 2006 end.
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