Milestone in India's Mobile Subscribers mark in May. TRAI.

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).

NEW DELHI: The number of mobile subscribers in the country crossed 617 million in May, with an addition of 16.3 million new connections, according to official data released Monday.

According to data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), the wireless user base grew 2.7 percent to 617.53 million in May from 601.22 million in the previous month.

With this the total telephone subscriber base touched 653.92 million.

"Wireline subscriber base declined from 36.83 million in April, 2010 to 36.39 million at the end of May, 2010," said a TRAI statement.

BSNL and MTNL, the two state-run operators hold 84.32 percent of the wireline market share. The growth in the wireless category was led by Bharti Airtel, which added 3 million users to take its subscriber base to 133.6 million users.

A close second came Reliance Communications, which added 2.8 million new subscribers while Vodafone added 2.59 million connections.

Tata Teleservices added 2.32 million users in May 2010, Idea Cellular (1.43 million ) and Aircel, 1.60 million new users.

According to the data, the broadband subscriber base grew 2.67 percent from 9 million in April to 9.24 million in May 2010.