The rural subscriber base of six GSM operators grew marginally by about half a per cent in August to 30.47 crore, as per data released by industry body COAI today.
"The total number of rural subscribers as of August 2014 reached 304.73 million (30.473 crore). Rural subscriber net additions in August 2014 was 1.63 million (16 lakhs) with 0.54 per cent increase from previous month," GSM industry body Cellular Operators Association of India said in the report.
The rural GSM subscriber base in July stood at 30.31 crore.
The growth in net addition was led by telecom major Airtel which added about 6 lakh customers in the reported month taking its total rural subscriber base to 9.7 crore.
Telewings (Uninor) witnessed maximum month-on-month growth rate of 1.58 per cent in its subscriber base though it added about 2 lakh customers only.
Idea and Aircel followed Airtel in terms of net subscriber addition by adding 4 and 2.2 lakh subscribers respectively. Vodafone added 2.1 lakh
Maximum number of net addition took place in West Bengal service area where 4.1 lakh subscribers were added by these mobile phone service providers.
UP continued to maintain its leadership in terms of maximum number of rural subscriber at 3.24 crore.
