Telecom operator Bharti Airtel further cemented its leadership position by adding maximum number of subscribers in May, according to data released by the industry body Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI).
GSM telecom operators added 7.27 million subscribers last month, taking the total user base to 677.85 million.
Airtel, which has a market share of 27.34 per cent, added 2.01 million users in May taking its total subscriber base to 185.30 million, COAI today said.
Uninor, one of the telecom operators whose 2G licence has been cancelled by the Supreme Court, maintained a significant growth in its user base by adding 1.52 million new customers in May, taking its user base to 45.08 million.
The company, along with other operators such as Videocon, Etisalat DB, STel and Sistema Shyam Teleservices (SSTL), are facing the threat of closure after the verdict.
Their licences are valid up to September 7, following which they will have to participate in the auction to buy spectrum to continue operations.
An Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) is meeting today to take a final call on the reserve price of spectrum and other modalities of auction.
Vodafone India added 1.20 million customers in May, taking its subscriber base to 152.49 million. The operator has a market share of 22.50 per cent as on May 31, 2012.
Aditya Birla group firm Idea Cellular added 1.76 million new subscribers during the month, while Videocon and Aircel added 0.13 million and 0.80 million new users, respectively.
State-owned telecom firms BSNL and MTNL, however, did not fare well this month.
While BSNL added just 1,735 new users, MTNL, which operates in Delhi and Mumbai, lost 0.17 million customers during the month. The subscriber base of BSNL and MTNL stood at 94.68 million and 5.32 million, respectively.
The COAI data excludes the subscriber numbers from Reliance Communications.