The total GSM rural subscriber base in India as of January 2015 stands at 325.64 million. The highest number of rural GSM subscribers are from UP East circle 34.39 million. The net addition of GSM rural subscribers in the month of January is 5.85 million with 1.83% increase from the previous month. The operator with the maximum addition new rural GSM subscribers is Airtel with 2 million new activations followed by Idea with 1.69 million new activations followed by Vodafone with 1.52 million, Aircel and Uninor trailed behind with 0.38 and 0.26 million new additions respectively.
The rural tele-density as of December 2014 was 46.09 out of which 45.47 is contributed by wireless telephony and 0.62 is contributed by wireline. Out of the total 325.64 million rural subscribers, 103.25 million are Airtel subscribers which means Airtel holds 31.7% of the rural GSM subscriber base while BSNL holds only 7.62%. Airtel is currently the number 1 operator by subscriber base in India and it seems to be holding on to its position pretty well. Recently BSNL has declared that they will be signing a Pan India 2G ICRA with Airtel which will benefit both operators in widening their network footprint across the country.
