For the third time in the last four months, GSM have surpassed the earlier record pertaining to the highest number of new additions made a single month - this time, crossing the 10-million new subscribers' mark!

Going by the recently-figures released by the COAI - Cellular Operators Association of India -, the month of March saw the telecom juggernaut bring in 10.84 million new users into its GSM periphery, thereby taking the number of full fiscal year GSM subscriptions to 288.3 million. No mean achievement in the face of the economic crisis!

The records started rolling in December, when the GSM services operators set a new record of 8.5 million new subscribers. The feat carried over into January, when the cellular user base increased by 9.6 million. And, by almost 2.84 million new users added by Vodafone Essar in March, the figures soared past 10 million - a record high for any company.

Commenting on the enviable figures and beyond, COAI Secretary-general TV Ramachandran said: "Though March has more days and companies push sales at the end of the financial year, we expect to see monthly incremental growth of 14 to 15 million consumers in
2009-10. Our estimate is that mobile penetration will go up from 35 per cent currently to 50 per cent by the end of this financial year."