State-run telecom company BSNL notched up 3.19 million new GSM subscribers in December, 2010, beating all the other service providers in terms of subscriber additions during the month, the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said today.

The GSM telecom operators cumulatively added 17.07 million new subscribers in December, 2010, taking the all-India GSM cellular subscriber base to 542.96 million.

The GSM subscriber base stood at 525.88 million at the end of November, 2010.

With the addition of 3.19 million new users in December, BSNL's subscriber base is now 81.38 million, as per the COAI data.

Bharti Airtel, the largest GSM player in the country in terms of its subscriber base, added 3.10 million new users in December, taking its total subscriber base to 152.49 million.

It had 28.09 per cent share of the telecom market in the country at the end of December, 2010.

Rival Vodafone Essar, with a 22.88 per cent market share, notched up 3.09 million new subscribers during the month. Its subscriber base stood at 124.25 million at the end of the reporting month.

Another state-run player, MTNL, added 24,731 new users during the month, taking its user base to 5.11 million at the end of December, 2010.

Aditya Birla Group firm Idea Cellular added 2.95 million users during the month to take its total user base to 81.77 million, while Aircel added 1.42 million customers to take its subscriber base to 50.16 million.