India’s telecom operators added 8.44 million new subscribers in the month of January 2012, taking the total GSM subscribers base to 648.08 million.
According to the latest data released by the Cellular Operators Assocaition of India (COAI), Uninor added the maximum number of subscribers in the month of January. The company, embroiled in the 2G case with its 22 licenses cancelled, added 2.49 million new users in January. The total subscriber base of the company not stands at 38.79 million. Uninor is a joint venture between Norway-based Telenor and India’s Unitech Limited. Telenor has invested $1.24 billion for a 67.25% ownership stake in Uninor.
The company was also in news recently after Telenor group said that its strategic partnership with Unitech Limited does not have a future, and it therefore will start the process of looking for a new Indian partner. The group has also issued a notice to Unitech that it will seek indemnity and compensation following the cancellation of Uninor’s 22 licenses by the Supreme Court of India.
Idea Cellular added 1.75 million new subscribers in January, taking its total GSM user base to 108.12 million. Bharti Airtel was next with 1.30 million additions, taking its total user base to 176.95 million at the end of January 2012.
Vodafone added 0.85 million new GSM users in January, taking its total user base to 148.60 million. State-owned BSNL and MTNL added 0.86 million and 50,180 new users respectively.
Other companies, whose licenses have been cancelled by the Supreme Court of India, like S Tel lost 0.11 million subscribers, taking its total user base to 3.43 million. Etisalat DB added 22,587 new users and had a total subscriber base of 1.69 million at the end of January 2012.
The UP (East) telecom circle added the maximum GSM subscribers in the month of January. It added 0.97 million new users in the month.
