India's telephone subscriber base nears 582 million; cellcos add 19.90 million
24 Feb 2010
The number of telephone subscribers in the country grew 3.49 per cent to 581.81 million at the end of January 2010, from 562.21 million in December 2009. With this, the overall tele-density in India has reached 49.50, an official release said today.
The wireless or mobile phone segment, including users of GSM, CDMA and FWP services, reported a growth of 3.79 per cent, with the subscriber base increasing from 525.15 million in December '09 to 545.05 million at the end of January '2010. Wireless tele-density stands at 46.37.
Total broadband subscriber base increased from 7.83 million in December 09 to 8.03 million in January 2010, showing a growth of 2.42 per cent.
Wireline subscriber base, on the other hand, declined from 37.06 million in December 2009 to 36.76 million at the end of January 2010.
State-run operators Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) together hold 84.96 per cent of the wireline market.
However, they lost 0.36 million subscribers in January 2010 even as the overall tele-density in the wireline segment dropped to 3.13.
.webp)
