Indian phone subscribers up by 3 mn in June

The number of telephone subscribers in India increased to 903.09 million at the end of June 2013 from 900.05 million at the previous month-end -- showing a monthly growth rate of 0.34 percent, data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) here Thursday said.

The share of urban subscribers decreased to 60.40 percent from 60.59 percent while the share of rural subscribers increased from 39.41 percent to 39.60 percent during June 2013.

With this, the overall teledensity in India increased to 73.50 at the end of June 2013 from 73.33 of the previous month, the TRAI data said.

Subscription in the urban areas increased from 545.30 million in May 2013 to 545.48 million at the end of June 2013.

Subscription in rural areas increased from 354.75 million to 357.61 million during the same period. The monthly growth rate of urban and rural subscription was 0.03 percent and 0.81 percent, respectively. The overall urban teledensity decreased from 145.54 to 145.35 and rural teledensity increased from 41.60 to 41.90.

Total wireless subscriber base increased from 870.20 million in May 2013 to 873.36 million at the end of June 2013 -- registering a monthly growth of 0.36 percent. The overall wireless teledensity in India reached 71.08 from 70.90 of the previous month.

Private operators hold 88.26 percent of the wireless market share (based on subscriber base) while BSNL and MTNL, the two public sector undertaking operators, hold only 11.74 percent market share.

The regulator said that as per the data reported by the service providers, about 95.59 million subscribers have submitted by the end of June 2013 requests to different service providers for porting their mobile number.

Wireline subscriber base declined from 29.85 million at the end of May 2013 to 29.73 million at the end of June 2013. Nett reduction in wireline subscriber base was 0.12 million.

Total broadband subscriber base has increased from 15.13 million at the end of May 2013 to 15.19 million at the end of June 2013 -- thereby showing a monthly growth of 0.39 percent.