Telecom Tuesday: India crossed 500 million telephone subscriber Mark

I am sure India has already crossed the 500 million Telephone subscriber Mark. Why I say this?

According to data released by Telecom regulatory Authority of India – the total subscriber base by the end of August 2009 was 494.07 Million.

India has been adding more than 10 million subscriber monthly for nearly 2 years now – Do the maths – We are at the end of September. So, unless the mobile subscriber growth suddenly take a nosedive (very unlikely), India should have already crossed the 500 Million Telephone Subscriber Mark.

Coming back to the report released by TRAI for month ending August 2008 – Here are the highlights:

Total Telephone subscriber base reaches 494.07 Million

Wireless subscription reaches 456.74 Million
Wireline subscription declines to 37.33 Million

15.08 Million new additions in wireless
Wireline subscription declines by 0.09 Million
Overall Tele-density reaches 42.27
Broadband subscriber base is 6.98 million

The number of telephone subscribers in India increased to 494.07 Million at the end of August-09 from 479.07 Million in July-2009, thereby registering a growth rate of 3.13%.

With this, the overall Tele-density in India reaches 42.27%

Wireless Segment

Wireless subscriber base increased from 441.66 Million in July-2009 to 456.74 Million at the end of August-09 at a monthly growth rate of 3.42%. Wireless Tele-density stands at 39.08%

Wireline Segment

Wireline subscriber base declined from 37.41 Million in July-2009 to 37.33
Million at the end of August-09. BSNL/MTNL, the PSU operators own 85.80% of the Market share. While major Private Wireline service providers have increased their subscriber base, BSNL/MTNL lost 0.14 Million subscribers in the month of August-09. Wireline Tele-density is 3.19.

Broadband Segment

Total Broadband subscriber base has increased from 6.80 million in July-09 to 6.98 million in August-09, thereby showing a dismal growth rate of 2.65 %.

I really wonder when will the broadband growth replicate the mobile growth (even half it would do :))

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Author: Arun Prabhudesai

Arun Prabhudesai is founder / chief editor at trak.in. He jumped the Entrepreneurship bandwagon in early 2008 after a long 13 year stint in I.T Industry. You can follow him on twitter @trakin or get in touch with him at admin-at-trak-dot-in or 91.9822575676.

Telecom Tuesday: India crossed 500 million telephone subscriber Mark

Tagged as: 500 million Telephone subscribers, broadband growth, BSNL/MTNL, Indian Mobile number, mobile subscriber, subscriber base, subscriber mark, Telecom regulatory authority, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, telephone subscriber, Total subscriber base, TRAI, Wireless operators, wireless segment, wireless subscriber, wireless tele, wireline service providers