Bharti Airtel has reclaimed top position as the largest operator in the rural sector, displacing Vodafone India, by adding 1.66 million users net.

Airtel, the country’s largest operator by both revenues and users, had a total of 83.82 million rural subscribers as of April 30, according to data collated by the Cellular Operators’ Association of India (COAI).

In comparison, Vodafone India added 1.18 million users, taking a total of 83.42 million rural subscribers as of April, according to the GSM operators’ body.

In March, Vodafone India, a subsidiary of the world’s largest telecom company Vodafone Plc, had emerged the largest operator in rural India by amassing a total of 82.24 million users. The GSM operator had overtaken Bharti Airtel for the first time, albeit by a thin margin, with the latter’s rural customer base at 82.16 million as of March 31, 2013.

With the urban subscriber base for voice services, telecom companies are looking at rural India to bring in subscribers, and in turn, revenues.

Vodafone India had rolled out an array of initiatives such as its Associated Distributor Vodafone Mini Stores (ADVMS) to get a foothold in the rural market. ADVMS, commonly referred in rural India as laal dukaan (red stores), are touch points managed generally by a resident of the area, such as someone from the Panchayat.

At present, Vodafone India has about 5,500 mini stores across the country, out of a total of 7,800 exclusive retail stores.

Idea Cellular, an Aditya Birla group company, was in the third slot with a total of 66.64 million customers, followed by Aircel and Uninor at 22.47 million and 10.07 million, respectively.

Indian telecom operators’ net additions of rural subscribers rose 1.50 per cent to 3.89 million in April this year, compared with the previous month. For the industry, the maximum number of rural user additions of 4,81,023 came in from Bihar and Jharkhand, while Uttar Pradesh (E) had the maximum rural subscribers of 28.41 million.

>rajesh.kurup@thehindu.co.in

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