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NEW DELHI - India, the world's fastest growing mobile phone market, added a record 3.9 million new GSM users in March, an industry body said on Saturday.
A statement from the Cellular Operators' Association of India, which represents the country's nine GSM carriers, said the past month's additions boosted the total GSM customer base to about 69.1 million.
Including subscribers on the rival CDMA technology, India added a total of 5.14 million mobile customers in March, taking the total number of mobile users to 90.54 million.
March CDMA figures were released earlier this week by the Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India.
India, which is Asia's third largest economy, has among the world's lowest call rates at less than 2 U.S. cents a minute, charges that have been attracting subscribers in the millions.
Competition among providers is intense with demand for mobile services growing fast and carriers have been expanding networks in rural areas where two-thirds of India's billion-plus people live.
India's top telecoms firm by sales, unlisted state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd., added nearly 1.1 million subscribers in March, raising its GSM user base to 17.2 million.
India's top mobile services firm, Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd., also added about 1.1 million new users, propelling its customer base to 19.6 million.
UK-based mobile giant Vodafone Group Plc owns a 10 percent stake in Bharti, which is also 30.84 percent owned by Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. (SingTel).
Hutchison Essar Telecom Ltd., the Indian wireless operation of Hong Kong's Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd., added more than 0.8 million new users in March. The firm's user base now stands at about 15.4 million customers.
Rival CDMA operators include Reliance Communications Ventures Ltd., which added 784,211 users in March taking its base to 15.4 million, while the salt-to-software Tata group's unlisted Tata Teleservices Ltd. saw its user base rise by 477,136 additions to nearly 4.9 million.
Reliance Communications also has GSM operations via Reliance Telecom Ltd. which added 103,905 users in March, raising its mobile base to over 1.9 million.
(C) Reuters
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