16.9 million new mobile connections added in April

Mobile telephony companies have added a full 16.9 million new connections in April, taking the total telephone subscriber base to 638.05 million, according to figures released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on Friday.

The mobile phone growth was led by Bharti Airtel, which added 3 million users, while Vodafone added 2.89 million users in April 2010. Reliance added 2.73 million new users, while Tata Telecom and Idea added 1.94 million and 1.46 million new users, respectively. Aircel added 1.6 million new users.

State-run companies Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd added 32,827 and 1.17 million users respectively during the month, it said.

The land line or 'wireline' subscriber base continued to decline, dropping to 36.83 million in April 2010 from 36.96 million in the previous month, it added. BSNL and MTNL together hold 84.64 per cent of the market share in the wireline segment.

With this, the overall tele-density (telephone connections per 100 people) reached 54.10 per cent.

In sharp contrast, the total broadband subscriber base grew by a mere 2.8 per cent to 9 million in April from 8.75 million in March, the statement said.