Despite fierce dispute between wireless-in-local-loop and cellular players over mobility turf, cellular operators ended up adding 10.8 lakh (1.08 million) subscribers in October, taking their subscriber base in the country to 1.93 crore (19.3 million).

The total number of cellular additions in October is more than the September figure of 870,000 new users.

The total number of cellular customers in Delhi rose to 26.78 lakh (2.68 million) in October from 25.80 lakh (2.58 million) users in September, with Bharti Cellular maintaining its lead with 12.48 lakh 1.25 million) customers, according to the latest data released by Cellular Operators Association of India.

During October the subscriber base of other operators in Delhi -- Hutchison Essar, MTNL and IDEA -- were pegged at 918,000, 156,000 and 357,000 respectively.

In Mumbai, the subscriber base of Hutchison Max stood at 905,000, while that of BPL Mobile was at 774,000. The

fouth operator in the circle, Bharti Cellular, raised its subscriber base to 410,000 even as the customer base of state-owned MTNL remained almost stagnant at 165,000.

This took the total cellular subscriber base in Mumbai to 22.57 lakh (2.26 million) from 21.75 lakh (2.17 million) in the previous month.

The subscriber base in Chennai rose to 687,000 in October from 645,000 earlier, in Kolkata as many as 726,000 customers used cellular phones in October compared to 708,000 in September.

In A category circle like Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, the subscriber base of cellular services rose to 70.2 lakh (7.02 million) from 65.75 lakh (6.57 million) in the previous month.

In B circles comprising Kerala, Punjab, Haryana, UP (West), UP (East), Rajasthan, MP and West Bengal the subscriber base grew to 51.44 lakh (5.14 million) compared to 48.31 lakh (4.83 million) in Septembe, while in case of C circles (Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa, Assam, North East and J&K) the users base went up to 834,000 in October over 758,000 in September.