India adds 1.7 mn GSM subscribers, Uninor loses 1.1 mn

Telecom service provider Uninor lost 1.1 million subscribers even as the country’s GSM subscriber base grew by 0.25 percent in July adding 1.7 million new users, according to data released by Cellular Operators Association of India. Uninor, the joint venture between Norway’s Telenor and India-based Unitech stands to lose its licenses following the Supreme Court’s orders Feb 2. Last month, the firm also said it was scaling down operations in four of its 13 active circles to ensure optimal fund utilization and to take part in the 2G auction from a stronger financial position. It has stopped activation of any new subscribers in the four circles – Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Odisha. The total subscriber base of the firm stood at 44.5 million.
Out of the 1.7 million users added in July, Bharti Airtel signed 1.5 million subscribers taking its total users numbers to 189 million. The total number of GSM subscribers in the country crossed 679 million as against 677.35 million in June. Vodafone followed Airtel by adding 1.2 million subscribers for a total of 155 million subscribers. Idea Cellular added 0.5 million users, taking its subscribers base to 118 million. Aircel added 0.3 million subscribers for a total of 65 million users.