In the month of May, India added a dismal 8.3 million GSM mobile connections, lower by a million compared to April's additions, bringing the total number of GSM connections to 306,453,590. The sector recorded a 2.78% growth from 298.1 million connections in April. This number does not include additions by Reliance. The drop could be due to BSNL losing 89,710 connections during May. The two PSUs BSNL and MTNL have recorded marginal growth rates of 0.95% and 0.9% during the month. Vodafone Essar and Bharti Airtel added 2.53 million and 2.81 million respectively while Idea added 1.3 million connections. Idea added maximum connections in Bihar and MP. Aircel struck gold in Assam and has a total of 2 million connections. The subscriber bases and market shares of GSM operators compared with April are in the table. Download the COAI report for May from here (Excel). Operators taking the rural route to drive growth have their work cut out for them - the four metros have 42,719,999 connections - greater than six C-class states that have a total of 41,979,741 connections! Related - Apr-09 Stats: 11.9M Mobile Connections Added; 6.28M Broadband - Mar-09 India Telecom Stats: 15.64M Wireless Added, 10.68M GSM; 6.22M Broadband; Wireline UP!
