Telecom subscribers increase to 906.18 mn in August

The number of telephone subscribers in India rose to 906.18 million at the end of August from 904.46 million in the previous month -- a monthly growth rate of 0.19 percent, data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India said Friday.

The share of urban subscribers has declined from 60.69 per cent to 60.57 per cent whereas share of rural subscribers has increased from 39.31 percent to 39.43 percent in the month of August.

The overall teledensity in India increased from 73.54 at the end of July to 73.60 at the end of August.

Subscription in the urban areas slightly declined from 548.92 million in July to 548.90 million at the end of August.

Subscription in rural areas increased from 355.54 million to 357.27 million during the same period.

The statement said that as per the data reported by the service providers, by the end of August about 100.20 million subscribers have submitted their requests to different service providers for porting their mobile number.

Total wireless subscriber base increased from 874.88 million in July to 876.72 million at the end of August, registering a monthly growth of 0.21 percent. Private operators hold 88.38 percent of the wireless market share whereas BSNL and MTNL, the two PSU operators hold only 11.62 percent market share.

Total broadband subscriber base has increased from 15.24 million at the end of July to 15.28 million at the end of August, thereby showing a monthly growth of 0.26 percent.