NEW DELHI: Telecom operators on the popular GSM-based platform added 9.3 million subscribers in August, down 6% when compared with 9.9 million new users in the previous month. India continues to be the world’s fastest-growing mobile market and the total number of GSM users in the country now risen to 335.4 million as of August-end as per data released by the Cellular Operators’ Association of India (COAI), the industry body that represents telcos on this mobile technological platform.

The decline in August additions is primarily due to the state-owned telcos, BSNL and MTNL, recording a dip in their monthly additions. BSNL added about 1.3 million new users in August, down 16% when compared with its growth in the previous month, while MTNL recorded a dip of about 43% in its monthly additions.

The state-owned operators now have a subscriber base of 52 million and 4.3 million, respectively. It was not just the PSU telcos that recorded a dip in new additions. Vodafone added 2.19 million users in August against 2.23 million in July. The telco now has a subscriber base of 80.8 million. Idea Cellular added about 1.5 million subscribers in August.

The growth in August was primarily led by Bharti Airtel, which added 2.8 million new users, taking its total subscriber base to 107.9 million. Bharti Airtel now has a market share of 32.19% in the GSM space. The telco’s growth is a reflection of the company’s efforts to penetrate rural and far-flung areas of the country even as subscriber additions in metros and large cities are reaching a saturation point.

Aircel, which is expanding its operations across the country in a bid to become a pan India operator, has added about 1.5 million new subscribers in August taking its total subscriber base to 24.4 million. The data provided by COAI however does not include the additions made by Reliance communications, the newest entrant in the GSM space.