Total telephone subscriber base rises 5 mn in June

The total telephone subscriber base in the country rose marginally to reach 1.007 billion at the end of June, sectoral regulator said on Tuesday.

The subscriber base stood at 1.002 billion at the end of May, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) said. The wireless base (GSM and CDMA) rose 0.5 per cent to 981 million at the end of June from 976 million in May.

“As on June 30, 2015, the private access service providers held 91.7 per cent market share of the wireless subscribers whereas BSNL and MTNL, the two public sector undertakings access service providers, held only 8.2 per cent share,” Trai said.

The wireless tele-density increased to 77.9 per cent from 77.6  per centat the end of May.

Wireless subscription in urban areas increased to 563 million at the end of June from 559 million last month and wireless subscription in rural areas increased from 417 million to 418 million during the same period. West Bengal service area recorded the highest growth rate in wireless subscribers during the reported period whereas Uttar Pradesh (East), Jammu & Kashmir and Tamil Nadu (including Chennai) service areas showed decline in subscriber base during the month.

In June, a total of 3680,000 subscribers submitted their requests for mobile number portability.

At the end of June, the wireless base of Airtel stood at 231 million, Vodafone at 185 million, Idea at 162 million, Reliance at 110 million, Tata at 61 million, Aircel at 83 million, Uninor at 48 million, Sistema Shyam Teleservices at 8700,000 and Videocon at 7610,000.

The wireless subscriber base of BSNL and MTNL stood at 7.73 crore and 35.47 lakh respectively.

TRAI said as per the reports received from the service providers, the number of broadband subscribers increased from 10.49 crore at the end of May to 10.88 crore at the end of June with monthly growth rate of 3.71 per cent.

Top five service providers constituted 83.83 per cent market share of total broadband subscribers at June end.

These service providers were Bharti Airtel (2.45 crore), Vodafone (2.20 crore), BSNL (1.82 crore), Idea Cellular (1.66 crore) and Reliance Communications Group (97.4 lakh).