Total number of telephone connections in India cross record 1 billion mark

For the first time, the total number of telephone connections in India crossed the record 1-billion mark in May, bolstered by growing number of mobile users.

The end of May saw the total number of telephone connections at 1,002.05 million, of which 975.78 million connections were wireless or mobile, according to data released by regulator TRAI today.

While the number of connections per 100 persons stood at 79.67 at the end of May, subscriber data was not entirely comparable with the population of the country as many people had multiple connections.

''The number of telephone subscribers in India increased from 999.71 million at the end of April 2015 to 1,002.05 million at the end of May 2015, thereby showing a monthly growth rate of 0.23 per cent,'' TRAI said.

Of the total wireless subscriber base, 868.64 million customers were found active in May and according to the report 102 per cent of Idea's subscribers were found to be active during the month.

The mobile subscriber base rose to 975.78 million in May from 973.35 million in April.

The mobile segment growth was led by Idea Cellular, which added over 1.25 million new customers taking its customer base to over 160 million, while Bharti Airtel added over 1.19 million customers in May. New player Telewings, operating under the Uninor brand, added 928,870 subscribers.

The last month, however, saw Reliance Communications, BSNL, Sistema Shyam and Tata Teleservices together lose over 2 million connections.

The number of landline connections too fell, by 0.36 per cent to 26.27 million in May over April.