Tecknova

Leading telecom operators are reaping the profits after the Supreme court cancelled 122 licences for mobile networks issued under a scam-tainted 2008 sale. Operators such as S Tel, Etisalat DB and Loop Telecom have already announced closure of their services. According to fresh figures released by the the Cellular Operators Association of India, the GSM operators have added 6.87 million new subscribers in March, taking the total user base to 664.08 million.

Total number of GSM subscribers was 657.21 million as on February, 2012. Bharti Airteladded 2.5 million subscribers last month, expanding its total subscriber base to 181.28 million.Vodafone Essar added 1.02 million new subscribers during the period under review, taking its total subscriber base to 150.47 million.

Uninor has continued to rapidly grow in the Indian market. The operator added 1.29 million new users in March, while its subscriber base stood at 42.43 million. Aditya Birla group firm Idea Cellular added 2.01 million users during the month to take its total user base to 112.72 million. Reliance Telecom had 59,829 new users to take its user base to 31.84 million. State-run telecom firms BSNL and MTNL added 0.89 million and 62,399 million new users, respectively, taking their subscriber base to 94.67 million and 5.59 million, respectively.

Aircel, however, lost 0.68 million customers during the month with its subscriber base dipping to 62.57 million.