Telecom operators added 15.34 million mobile subscribers in April this year taking the total number of telephone users to 861.48 million.

According to data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the mobile subscriber base increased to 826.93 million at the end of April from 811.59 million in the preceding month, registering a growth of 1.89 per cent.

With this, the overall teledensity (telephones per 100 people) in India reached 72.08 per cent.

However, the number of active mobile subscribers, according to the visitor location register (VLR) data, during the month was only 583.22 million.

VLR numbers provide details on active customers at any given point of time, excluding switched-off and out-of-the-coverage area customers.

Growth in the wireless category was led by Reliance Communications, which added 2.93 million subscribers, to take its subscriber base to 138.65 million at the end of April. Idea Cellular added 2.45 million new users to take its user base to 91.95 million.

Bharti Airtel added 2.41 million subscribers (increasing its user base to 164.61 million), while Vodafone added 2.4 million users (taking user base to 136.97 million). Aircel added 1.10 million users, while Tata Teleservices added 1.24 million users in April.

State-run telcos BSNL and MTNL added 0.17 million and 367 new subscribers, respectively in February.

Wireline category continued to lose customers, with the subscriber base declining to 34.55 million at the end of April from 34.73 million in the previous month, TRAI said.

BSNL and MTNL hold 82.44 per cent share of the wireline market.

Also, broadband subscription reached 12.01 million in April from 11.87 million in March, growing 1.17 per cent.

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