India's top private telecom companies add 2.08 mn subscribers in July

New Delhi: Leading GSM telecom operators, Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular and Telenor, added 2.08 million subscribers in July, as per data released by industry body COAI.  “The GSM Subscriber increased by 2.08 million in July. Total number of GSM Subscriber base as of July 2016 reached 779.05 million,” as per data of Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI). Telecom major Bharti Airtel led the growth by adding 1.07 million net new subscribers taking its total mobile customer base to 256.81 million at the end of July. The firm was followed by Telenor which added 0.4 million customers, Vodafone 0.33 million and Idea added 0.26 million new customers. The data released by the industry body did not include latest subscriber number of state-run public sector units MTNL and BSNL. Other GSM players, Tata Teleservices, Reliance Communications and Quadrant, also do not share their subscriber numbers with COAI as they are not its members. UP East remained the top telecom circle with 71.32 million GSM subscribers and Kerala topped the chart in terms of maximum subscriber additions in July.