According to the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), the rural telecom market continued to witness steady growth.
The total rural customer base stood at 269.27 million, as of end-May 2013, a 1.07 per cent increase over April. Over 2.85 million users were added in the period under consideration.
Operator-wise, Bharti Airtel led the rural telecom market with a subscriber base of 84.64 million, in end-May 2013. The operator was followed by Vodafone India, Idea Cellular and Aircel, with 84.29 million, 67.85 million and 22.43 million rural customers respectively.
Idea Cellular added the most subscribers in this space, at 1.21 million, as of end-May 2013. It was followed by Vodafone India (0.87 million) and Bharti Airtel (0.82 million). Aircel and Uninor registered negative growth of 0.04 and 0.01 million respectively in their rural customer base.
Idea Cellular had the highest proportion of rural customers in its overall subscriber base, at 55 per cent, as of end-May 2013. Vodafone India followed, at 54 per cent, Bharti Airtel, at 45 per cent, Aircel, at 37 per cent and Uninor at 31 per cent.
Circle-wise, the Uttar Pradesh (East) circle registered the highest number of additions of rural customers, at 701,644, taking the total rural user base to 29.11 million in the circle. Category B circles had the highest rural user base, at 128.42 million, followed by Category A circles (84.26 million), category C circles (52.27 million) and metros (4.32 million).
