Total telephone user base rises to 94.29 cr in June: Trai

The total telephone subscriber base in the country rose marginally in June to reach 94.29 crore, with 46.1 lakh users added during the month, sectoral regulator Trai said today.

"The number of telephone subscribers in India increased from 938.34 million at the end of May 2014 to 942.95 million at the end of June 2014, thereby showing a monthly growth of 0.49%," Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) said.

Trai said the share of urban subscribers has increased to 59.36% from 59.28%. While the total number of rural subscribers has increased, there is a marginal decrease in share of rural subscriber from 40.72% to 40.64% in the month of June.

The overall tele-density in the country increased to 75.80% at the end of June from 75.51 at May-end.

"Total wireless subscriber base increased from 910.16 million at the end of May 2014 to 914.92 million at the end of June 2014, registering a monthly growth of 0.52%," Trai said.

Private operators hold 89.85% of the wireless subscriber market share, whereas BSNL and MTNL - two PSU operators - hold only 10.15% market share.

Vodafone added maximum subscribers in June, with 16.22 lakh new users joining its network to take its base to 16.98 crore.

Bharti Airtel added 10.12 lakh subscribers to take its base to 20.92 crore at the end of June, whereas Idea Cellular added 12.90 lakh and its overall base stood at 13.90 crore.

Uninor added 14.32 lakh subscribers to take its base to 3.93 crore during the reported period. Reliance Communications added 5.13 lakh new users and its overall base at the end of June was 10.88 crore.

Tata Teleservices lost 1.04 lakh users and its user base has shrunk to 6.28 crore. State-run BSNL and MTNL too lost 21.40 lakh and 30,304 users respectively during the month.

"As per the data reported by the service providers, by the end of June, 2014 about 123.87 million subscribers have submitted their requests to different service providers for porting their mobile number," Trai said.

The wireline subscriber base declined from 2.81 crore at the end of May to 2.80 crore at the end of June.

Trai said as per the reports received from the broadband service providers, number of broadband subscribers increased from 6.53 crore at the end of May to 6.88 crore at the end of June, with monthly growth rate of 5.35%.