India’s telephone subscriber base marginally up at 915 million at end-December 2013

The number of telephone subscribers in the country increased to 915.19 million as of end-December 2013 from 910.14 million at the end of November 2013 thereby showing a monthly growth of 0.56 per cent, latest data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) showed.

However, the share of urban subscribers marginally declined to 60.03 per cent at the end of December 2013 from 60.06 per cent at the end of November 2013, whereas the share of rural subscribers increased marginally to 39.97 per cent at the end of December 2013 from 39.94 per cent in the previous month.

Out of the total 886.30 million wireless subscribers, 762.40 million were active on the date of peak visitor location register (VLR) in December 2013.

As per TRAI data, the proportion of VLR subscribers is approximately 86.02 per cent of the total wireless subscriber base reported by the service providers.

Service provider wise, Idea leads the pack with 100.98 per cent, followed by Bharti (96.23 per cent) and Vodafone (95.63%). Loop has the lowest proportion of VLR with 47.39 per cent.

Circle-wise, Maharashtra has the highest proportion of VLR subscribers with 92.24 per cent followed by West Bengal (92.06 per cent) and Assam (90.17 per cent). Tamil Nadu (including Chennai) has the lowest VLR proportion with 74.08 per cent.

The overall teledensity in the country increased to 74.02 at the end of December 2013 from 73.69 at the end of November 2013.

As per TRAI data, subscription in the urban areas increased to 549.40 million at the end of December 2013 from 546.64 million at end-November 2013.

Subscription in rural areas increased to 365.79 million at the end of December 2013 from 363.50 million during the same period.

The monthly growth rate of urban and rural subscription stood at 0.51 per cent and 0.63 per cent, respectively.

The overall urban teledensity increased to 144.95 from 144.46 while rural teledensity increased to 42.67 from 42.43 during in the period.

The number of broadband subscribers in the country reached 55.20 million at the end of December 2013.

As per the reports received from the service providers, the number of broadband subscribers in the country stood at 55.20 million at the end of December 2013.

The top five broadband service providers constitute 82.36 per cent market share of total broadband subscribers. 

They are:

• BSNL: 16.54 million subscribers
• Bharti: 10.88 million subscribers
• Reliance: 6.98 million subscribers
• Idea: 5.87 million subscribers
• Vodafone: 5.20 million subscribers

Among wireline broadband service providers the top five are:

• BSNL: 9.98 million
• Bharti: 1.39 million
• MTNL: 1.11 million
• Hathway Cable: 0.36 million 
• Beam Telecom: 0.35 million

The top five wireless broadband service providers are:

• Bharti: 9.49 million
• Reliance: 6.86 million
• BSNL: 6.55 million
• Idea: 5.86 million
• Vodafone: 5.20 million