Telecom subscriber base reaches 96.42 cr in November

Number of telephone subscribers increased from 962.63 mn at the end of Oct 2014 to 964.20 mn at the end of Nov 2014

Telecom subscriber base in the country has reached 96.42 crore in November with Idea Cellular adding the maximum number of new users according to the data by telecom regulator TRAI.

The number of telephone subscribers increased from 962.63 million at the end of October, 2014 to 964.20 million at the end of November, 2014, at a growth rate of 0.16%. The mobile subscriber base increased to 93.7 crore in November from 93.53 crore in October while fixed line customer base declined by half% to 2.71 crore from 2.72 crore.

About 88% of mobile subscribers were found active during the month. Idea Cellular added maximum 25.4 lakh new subscribers in November taking it total customer base to 14.79 crore.

Vodafone followed Idea in net subscriber addition by adding over 23.2 lakh new customers.Bharti Airtel added over 20 lakh new customers, Aircel 9.53 lakh, Tata Teleservices 7.85 lakh, Uninor (Telewings) 1.93 lakh and Videocon (including Quadrant Televentures) 1.51 lakh.

State-run MTNL added 19,230 new mobile customers.

However, Reliance Communications lost over 42 lakh of its mobile subscriber base in November because of account removal of inactive subscribers.

Public sector firm BSNL and Mumbai based Loop Mobile lost over 23.18 lakh mobile subscribers during the month. Loop Mobile licences expired in November 2014.

TRAI said 36.4 lakh subscribers submitted requests for changing their telecom operators using the mobile number portability facility during the month. With this, the cumulative MNP requests increased from 13.58 crore at the end of October to 13.94 crore at the end of November.

Broadband subscriber base in the country increased to over 8.22 crore in November from 7.92 crore reported in October.Wireless broadband subscription, mainly mobile phone and dongles, accounted for 6.65 crore customers.

BSNL led broadband subscriber segment with 1.87 crore subscribers, followed by Airtel with 1.82 crore, Vodafone 1.56, Idea Cellular 1.23 crore and RCom 67.7 lakh.

TRAI excluded those broadband customers of Idea Cellular and RCom who used less than 1 MB in a month.