30mn telephone subscribers added in 2005

New Delhi: According to numbers released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, more than 30 million new users were added during 2005, making it the highest addition in any single year. With this, tele-density in the country touched 11.43 per cent against 8.6 per cent in December 2004.

The telephone subscriber base rose by 5 million users in December, taking the total to nearly 125 million. Fixed lines grew 9 per cent from 44.87 million at the end of 2004 to 48.93 million by December 2005, mobile connections went up by 58 per cent from 48 million to 75 million, For the mobile segment, 4.46 million subscribers were added during December 2005, against 3.51 million in November.

The mobile additions consist of 3.19 million GSM subscribers and 1.27 million CDMA subscribers. In the fixed segment, a total of 0.46 million subscribers were added during December, which were predominantly WLL (F). During 2005, about 4 million fixed subscribers were added, against 2.67 million during 2004.

During the year the Internet subscriber base crossed the broadband policy target of 60 lakh users. However, broadband connections fell short of the target. At the end of 2005, total broadband connections crossed 8.35 lakh only, against a target of 30 lakh set by the Broadband Policy-2004.