Indian cellular companies added 13.7 lakh (1.37 million) customers in January this year, taking its subscriber base to 2.33 crore (23.3 million) even as CDMA based mobile companies added another 218,000 customers during the period in reference.

GSM based cellular subscriber base surged to 2.33 crore during January from 2.19 crore in December 2003.

As per the data released by Cellular Operators Association of India, Bharti had cornered a marketshare of 25.09 per cent as its subscriber base touched 58.62 lakh (5.86 million) followed by state owned BSNL with 20.9 per cent market share with 48.9 lakh (4.89 million) subscribers.

Hutchison-Essar JV with market share of 19.09 per cent notched a subscriber base of 44.61 lakh (4.46 million) while Idea's subscriber stood at 24.43 lakh (2.44 million) and translating into a market share of 10.4 per cent during January this year.

In the CDMA segment, Reliance Infocomm continued to lead the tally with a subscriber base of 57.49 lakh (5.74 million) followed by the Tatas whose mobile subscriber base stood at 601,000 during the month of January this year.

Bharti, which offers both wireline and WLL fixed services claimed a user base of 587,000 while HFCL had a subscriber base of 139,000 (both wireline and WLL base mobile service).

Delhi witnessed a jump of 5.36 per cent in the GSM based subscribers taking total user tally to 30.91 lakh (3.09 million) in January.

Mumbai's subscriber base increased by 4.5 per cent at 26.21 lakh (2.62 million), a COAI release said.