According to the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), the GSM subscriber base in rural areas witnessed an increase of 1.63 million users in August 2014. The overall rural customer base grew by 0.54 per cent from 303.10 million as of end-July 2014 to 304.73 million as of end-August 2014.
Among the service providers, Bharti Airtel recorded the highest growth in rural customer base during August 2014, with an addition of 0.6 million subscribers taking the operator?s overall rural users base to 97.32 million. Idea Cellular witnessed the second highest addition of new rural users, with 0.40 million customers, which increased its total rural subscriber base to 77.27 million. Aircel?s rural subscriber base stood at 26.43 million as of end-August 2014, following an addition of 0.22 million new users. The total rural subscriber base of Vodafone India stood at 90.83 million, following an increment of 0.21 million users during August 2014.
Uninor experienced the highest month-on-month growth rate of 1.58 per cent in its subscriber base, adding about 0.2 million rural users during August 2014. As of end-August 2014, the total rural subscriber base of Uninor stood at 12.88 million.
In terms of rural-urban mix, Idea and Vodafone had the highest number of rural customers as of end-August 2014.
Among the service areas, the West Bengal circle witnessed the maximum number of net addition of 0.41 million new rural subscribers.
