India’s telephone subscriber base falls 0.11% to 897.02 million in April
05 Jul 2013
The number of telephone subscribers in India decreased to 897.02 million at the end of April 2013, from 898.02 million at the end of March 2013, thereby showing a negative monthly growth rate of -0.11 per cent.
The share of urban subscribers has decreased to 60.71 per cent from 61.11 per cent whereas the share of rural subscribers has increased from 38.89 per cent to 39.29 per cent in April 2013.
With this, the overall teledensity in India has decreased to 73.16 as of the end of April 2013 from 73.32 in the previous month.
Subscription in the urban areas decreased from 548.80 million in February 2013 to 544.55 million at the end of April 2013. Subscription in rural areas increased from 349.22 million to 352.47 million during the same period.
The monthly growth rate of urban and rural subscription stood at -0.77 per cent and 0.93 per cent, respectively. Overall urban teledensity has decreased from 146.96 to 145.58 and rural teledensity increased from 41.02 to 41.37.
Total wireless subscriber base decreased from 867.80 million in March 2013 to 867.02 million at the end of April 2013, registering a monthly growth of -0.09 per cent.
This decline is largely due to disconnections by some of the service providers. The share of urban wireless subscribers has decreased from 60.53 per cent to 60.11 per cent where as the share of rural wireless subscribers has increased from 39.47 per cent to 39.89 per cent.
Overall wireless teledensity in India has reached 70.71 from 70.85 in the previous month.
Wireless subscription in urban areas decreased from 525.30 million in March 2013 to 521.18 million at the end of April 2013. Wireless subscription in rural areas increased from 342.50 million to 345.85 million during the same period.
Urban wireless teledensity has decreased from 140.67 to 139.33 and rural teledensity has increased from 40.23 to 40.59.
Private operators hold 88.02 per cent of the wireless market share (based on subscriber base) where as BSNL and MTNL, the two PSU operators, hold only 11.98 per cent market share.
Wireline subscriber base declined from 30.21 million at the end of March 2013 to 29.99 million at the end of April 2013. Net reduction in wireline subscriber base was 0.22 million. The share of urban subscribers has increased from 77.78 per cent to 77.93 per cent where as share of rural subscribers has declined from 22.22 per cent to 22.07 per cent.
The overall wireline teledensity has marginally decreased from 2.47 in March 2013 to 2.45 in April 2013, with urban and rural teledensity being 6.25 and 0.78 respectively.
BSNL and MTNL, the two PSU operators hold 79.08 per cent of the wireline market share.
Total broadband subscriber base has increased from 15.05 million at the end of March 2013 to 15.09 million at the end of April 2013, thereby showing a monthly growth of 0.29 per cent. Yearly growth in broadband subscribers is 8.21 per cent during the last one year (April 2012 to April 2013).
As of 30 April 2013, there were 162 internet service providers (ISPs), which are providing broadband services in the country. Out of these, 119 ISPs (having 99.26 per cent market share) have provided broadband subscription data for April 2013, for the rest of the ISPs data from previous month has been retained.
Top five ISPs in terms of market share (based on subscriber base) are: BSNL (9.94 million), Bharti Airtel (1.40 million), MTNL (1.09 million), Hathway (0.36 million) and You Broadband (0.31 million).
Mobile Number Portability requests increased from 89.70 million subscribers at the end of March 2013 to 91.73 million at the end of April 2013. In April 2013 alone, 2.03 million requests have been made for MNP.
Active wireless subscribers on the date of peak VLR (visitor location register) in April 2013 stood at 724.52 million (83.56 per cent of the total subscribers).
Broadband subscription reached 15.09 million in April 2013 from 15.05 million in March 2013.
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