India’s total telecom subscriber base rose to 933 million as of March-end, a 0.11 per cent increase from the previous month, as mobile operators continued to add users. The total subscriber base – both mobile and fixedline – was at 931.95 million as of February-end.
“The share of urban subscribers has declined from 59.77 per cent to 59.51 per cent whereas that of rural subscribers has increased from 40.23 per cent to 40.49 per cent,” according to data compiled by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).
However, according to the regulator, the country’s overall tele-density (telephones per 100 people) remained flat at 75.23 as of March, compared with the previous month.
The country’s mobile operators added 1.15 million users during the month under review, increasing their total subscriber base to 904.51 million (from 903.36 million users in February). The share of urban wireless subscribers has declined to 58.90 per cent (from 59.16 per cent), while that of rural wireless users rose to 41.10 per cent (40.84 per cent).
The country’s overall wireless tele-density rose to 72.94 (72.92), according to TRAI data.
Among the service providers, Idea Cellular added the maximum of 2.24 million users for the second month in a row, followed by Vodafone India (2.22 million) and Bharti Airtel (1.9 million).
Loop Mobile, which has been acquired by Bharti Airtel, has lost 40,294 customers during the month. Reliance Communications (7 million), BSNL (185,491), Tata Teleservices (147,736) and MTNL (134,914) were the other losers.
On visitor location registry (VLR) basis, 790.87 million (out of the total 904.51 million wireless subscribers) were active on the date of peak VLR in March.
As of March-end, about 117.01 million subscribers have submitted their requests to different service providers for porting their mobile number, TRAI said.
rajesh.kurup@thehindu.co.in