India's mobile phone subscriber base up by 20.2 million in February
07 Apr 2011
With the addition of 20.2 million new subscribers in February, India's total mobile phone subscription touched 791.38 million towards the end of the month, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) announced on Thursday.
There was a marginal drop in the number of wireline phones during the month. But the total number of phone subscribers (both wireless and wireline) rose to 826.25 million, resulting in a tele-density of 69.29. India is the fastest-growing wireless phone market in the world, and the second in terms of numbers after China.
Interestingly, figures for February reveal that the rate of growth in new mobile phone subscribers in rural areas outstripped those in urban areas. There was a 2.82 per cent growth in mobile phone subscribers in rural areas in February, as against a 2.52 per cent growth in cities.
But in overall terms, urban subscribers account for 66.72 per cent of all phone users in the country. Urban tele-density in India is also at 154.01 (there are 154.01 phones for every 100 urban Indians), as against 32.95 in rural areas.
According to the TRAI, broadband subscription rose to 11.47 million towards the end of February, from 11.21 million a month earlier.
Private operators dominate the wireless sector with a 87.9 per cent share of the market. Bharti Airtel is the largest mobile phone operator, with a 20.09 per cent share, followed by Reliance (16.7 per cent), Vodafone (16.54 per cent), state-owned BSNL (11.41 per cent), Tata (11.08 per cent) and Idea (10.97 per cent).
