Bharti Airtel continues to hold the top position with around 30 per cent market share, adding another 1 million subscribers during September to take its total subscriber base to 282.04 million.

Airtel is closely followed by Vodafone India, which stands at 207.44 million, while Idea Cellular had 190.15 million subscribers at the end of September, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said on Monday.

As per the data, India’s private telecom service providers have a total of 946.66 million subscribers.

The data also includes the figures of Reliance Jio Infocomm and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) by the end of August (sourced from TRAI), it said.

The report, which also provides mobile subscriber numbers across individual circles, showed that the UP (East) circle remained at the top with a total 83.46 million subscribers, while Maharashtra remained second with a total of 79.20 million mobile subscribers.

Bihar was a close third with 76.15 million subscribers. Kerala and Haryana led in the growth percentage of new additions with 0.69 per cent and 0.37 per cent, respectively, followed by Gujarat with 0.14 per cent growth in September, COAI said.

Mumbai and Delhi added 2,73,250 and 1,36,216 subscribers respectively, with a total of 30.17 million and 47.57 million subscribers, respectively.

‘Room to grow’

“The increase of subscribers in Kerala, Haryana and Gujarat shows that there is still room for basic services to grow and expand to the corners of the country. The steady investment in infrastructure in these regions is showing positive result,” said Rajan Mathews, Director-General, COAI.

However, he also said the industry is reeling under a cumulative debt of over ₹4.6 lakh crore and it needs an additional investment of over ₹2.5 lakh crore for infrastructure rollout and expansion, especially in the far-flung areas of the country.

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