India is world's fastest-growing mobile market

Indian mobile telecoms firms added 9.16 million users last month, taking subscribers in the world's fastest-growing wireless market to more than 300 million, data from the telecoms regulator showed on Wednesday.

The operators added 9.22 million users in July.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India said in a statement there were 305.24 million wireless users at the end of last month.

Leading mobile firm Bharti Airtel signed up 2.7 million wireless customers in August, to reach 74.8 million.

Second-ranked Reliance Communications had 54.3 million wireless users, 1.75 million more than at end-July.

Vodafone Essar, controlled by Vodafone, signed up 1.81 million new users to have a total of 52.8 million.

State-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam, which is gearing up for a share sale that could raise up to €6.7 billion, added 638,118 wireless users to have 43.2 million mobile users.

No. 5 player Idea Cellular had 29.3 million users.

India is the world's fastest-growing market for wireless services and the second-largest market for such services after China, with growth fuelled by cheap handsets and call rates as low as 0.67 euro cents a minute.