Telecom Subscriber Numbers for Feb, 2007

India's GSM service providers added 4.9mn new subscribers last month, taking the total base to 115.3mn at the end of February, up from 110.5mn in January, the Cellular Operators' Association of India (COAI) said on Thursday.

Among the various circles, Category C witnessed the highest rate of growth at 6.8% in February, followed by Category B at 4.9%. Within Category C, the highest growth was witnessed in Himachal Pradesh (10.3%) followed by Assam (9.3%). In Category B, Haryana recorded the highest growth at 6.9%, followed by West Bengal and Andaman & Nicobar at 6.8%.

Category A circles saw a growth of 3.8% in February. Andhra Pradesh recorded the highest growth of 4.3% followed by Maharashtra at 4.1%. The Metro subscribers grew by 3.3% in February over the previous month. Kolkata recorded the highest growth at 4.6%.

Among the companies, Bharti Airtel added 1.71mn new users as against 1.76mn in January. Hutch Essar added 928,821 new subscribers versus 1.11mn in January. Idea Cellular, which is all set to make its stock market debut on Friday, added 568,051 new users compared to 629,499 in the previous month.

Reliance Telecom, the GSM arm of Reliance Communications, added 234,501 new subscribers as against 235,406 in January. MTNL added 80,588 new users compared to 73,701 in the month before.