GSM mobile user base down to 655.59 mn in Feb

The country's GSM mobile subscriber base fell by 1.97 million in February to 655.59 million, dragged down by Uninor that lost over 8 million users, data released by industry body COAI shows.

The subscriber count stood at 657.56 million at the end of January 2013.

Uninor lost 8.34 million subscribers during February and its user base now stands at 31.77 million. Uninor has closed down its operations in various circles, including Mumbai, and the company now provides services in six circles.

"The loss of subscription in February also reflects the scale Uninor was able to build within three years in the circles it was compelled to close down," Uninor said in a statement.

"In the six circles where Uninor operations are continuing, the company has added 1.2 lakh new subscribers in February," it added.

Besides Uninor, Videocon lost 0.19 million subscribers and its user base has been reduced to 2.06 million. State-run MTNL lost 0.20 million subscribers to take down its base to 4.91 million. Aircel lost 0.69 million users to drag its base to 60.87 million.

However, Idea Cellular added 2.85 million new users, the maximum during in this month among peers, to take its user base to 119.25 million. It is followed by Bharti Airtel, which added 2.42 million subscribers to take its subscriber base to 186.62 million.

Vodafone added 2.18 million new customers to take its base to 149.88 million.

GSM or Global System for Mobile Communications is a standard set developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute to describe protocols for second generation (2G) digital cellular networks used by mobile phones.

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