The country’s GSM mobile operators have added 16.6 lakh new subscribers in rural areas in October, taking their overall user base in such areas to 27.43 crore, which represents 0.61% growth as compared to previous month.
According to data released by the Cellular Operators’ Association of India (COAI), among all the telecom operators, Vodafone added the maximum of 7.7 lakh new users, taking its rural subscriber base to 8.39 crore at the end of October, following it was Bharti Airtel, which added 6 lakh new users during the month and its base stood at 8.74 crore. Meanwhile, Idea Cellular and Aircel added 3.7 lakh and 60,000 new users to take their respective base to 6.95 crore and 2.33 crore. However, Uninor lost 1.4 lakh rural subscribers during the month, which led to a contraction in its base to 1.01 crore at the end of October.
Further, COAI data revealed that total rural subscribers as on September 2013 stood at 35.66 crore of which 35.03 crore are wireless and 63.1 lakh are wireline users. Meanwhile, total rural teledensity stood at 41.70 per cent as on September 2013.
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