Telephone subscription dips 2.52 mn in October

The number of telephone subscribers in the country decreased to 935.18 million at the end of October, 2012 from 937.70 million at the end of September, thereby registering a monthly growth rate of -0.27%, according to latest figures released by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

The TRAI data says, the number of urban telephone subscribers has declined to 63.17% from 63.53% whereas number of rural subscribers has increased to 36.83% in the month of October 2012. With this, the overall teledensity in country reached 76.75 at the end of October, 2012 from 77.04 of the previous month.

TARI in the statement said, “Subscription in the urban areas decreased from 595.69 million in September, 2012 to 590.73 million at the end of October, 2012. Subscription in rural areas increased from 342.01 million to 344.45 million during the same period. The monthly growth rate of urban and rural subscription is -0.83% and 0.71% respectively. The overall urban teledensity has decreased from 161.13 to 159.52 and rural teledensity increased from 40.36 to 40.61.”

“Total wireless subscriber base decreased from 906.62 million in September 2012 to 904.23 million at the end of October 2012, registering a monthly growth of -0.26%. This decline is due to large scale disconnections by some of the service providers. The share of urban wireless subscribers has decreased from 63.06 % to 62.68% where as share of rural wireless subscribers has increased from 36.94% to 37.32%. The overall wireless Teledensity in India has reached 74.21.Wireless subscription in urban areas decreased from 571.70 million in September 2012 to 566.81 million at the end of Octoberber 2012. The wireless subscription in rural areas increased from 334.92 million to 337.42 million during the same period,” said TARI.

The urban wireless teledensity has decreased from 154.64 to 153.06 and rural teledensity has increased from 39.52 to 39.78.

Private operators hold 88.36% of the wireless market share (based on subscriber base) where as BSNL and MTNL, the two PSU operators hold only 11.64% market share.

Out of the total 904.32 million wireless subscribers, 703.92* million were active on the date of Peak VLR for the month of October 2012. The proportion of VLR subscribers is approximately 77.85% of the total wireless subscriber base reported by the service providers.

Circle-wise, J&K has the highest proportion of VLR subscribers with 85.16% followed by Maharashtra (83.62%) and Assam (82.34%); Tamil Nadu (including Chennai) has the lowest proportion with 69.18%. Service Provider wise, Idea leads the tally with 95.37% followed by Bharti Airtel (91.72%).

On the other hand, Broadband subscriber base has increased from 14.68^ million at the end of September 2012 to 14.81^ million at the end of October 2012, there by showing a monthly growth of 0.89%. Yearly growth in broadband subscribers is 14.10% during the last one year (October 2011 to October 2012).

As on 31st October 2012, there are 157 Internet Service Providers (ISPs) which are providing broadband services in the country. Out of this only 113ISPs have provided data for the month of October 2012, for the rest of the ISPs data from previous month has been retained (Data from top 10 ISPs, which constitute 92.6% of the total subscriber base, have been received for the month of October 2012). Top five ISPs in terms of market share (based on subscriber base) are: BSNL (9.69 million), Bharti Airtel (1.39 million), MTNL (1.08 million), Hathway (0.37 million) and Tikona (0.30 million).