New Delhi: The country added over 8 million subscribers during May, taking the total GSM subscriber base to over 30 million, registering a growth of 2.78%.

However, May witnessed a decline of approximately 6 lakh subscribers compared to the additions made during April.

The industry at large is unfazed by this trend as this was expected to happen as the telecom operators move towards the rural areas. With the metro cities and urban India attaining high tele-density close to 100% in cities like Delhi, the operators are now focussing on the rural market, where the average levels of income are much lower and propensity levels.

The country’s largest telecom operator, Bharti Airtel that reached the 100 million subscriber mark (fixed line and wireless) registered a 2.91% growth in its wireless subscribers taking its total wireless subscribers’ tally to 99.5 million. An addition of 2.8 million subscribers Airtel continued to have the largest market share in subscriber terms despite a marginal dip in its market share that declined by 0.1% during the month.

The company’s market share has been dipping marginally over time but the company officials have long maintained that Airtel is more focussed on increasing its revenue market share rather than the subscriber market share.

The company is currently engaged in talks with South African telecom giant MTN for swapping 36% stake in Bharti for a proposed 49% stake in MTN.

Vodafone-Essar the second largest GSM operator recorded a 3.55% growth in its subscriber market share garnering an additional 2.5 million subscribers. With this Vodafone held over 74 million GSM subscribers at the end of the month. Vodafone marginally increased its market share to 24.17% during the month. The company netted the highest number of subscribers from its UP east circle where it added close to 2.9 lakh users in the month.

The state run BSNL, the country’s second largest telecom operator saw its market share decline by 0.32% during the month. Though the company’s overall addition of subscribers was a low of 4.5 lakh during the month, it was offset by loss of customers in four circles namely Kolkata, Rajasthan, MP and Maharashtra. BSNL grew at the slowest pace of 0.95% during the month.

Idea Cellular, the country’s fourth largest GSM operator continued to maintain a market share of 14.84% during the month. Idea added 1.3 lakh customers in the month, growing at a pace of 2.95% to record over 45 million customers in the month.