India's booming wireless sector, the world's fastest growing major mobile market, added 2.49 million new users in July, taking the total number of customers to 60.366 million, industry bodies said on Tuesday.
The Cellular Operators' Association, representing nine carriers offering mobile services based on the widely prevalent Global System for Mobile (GSM) communication, said 1.954 million customers signed up for its services.
Overall, GSM carriers had 46.874 million customers at the end of July, up 4.35 percent over June.
The strong growth in the past month came despite heavy monsoon rains that wreaked havoc in Bombay, a top market for cellular services, T.V. Ramachandran, director general of the Cellular Operators' Association, said.
"Traditionally, July shows weak demand because of widespread rains," Ramachandran said. "So this growth is all the more heartening."
He said he expected monthly additions to rise further in the coming quarters as carriers were expanding in rural areas.
Local mobile call tariffs of as low as 2 US cents a minute are driving cellular usage in India, where less than six people in 100 in the more than a billion-strong population use mobile services.
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