Subscriber addition falls, 11.59 mn mobile users added in May

Subscriber addition by the Indian telecom industry has slowed down for the second month in a row, with 11.59 million wireless subscribers being added in May 2009.     

This is against an addition of 11.90 million wireless users in April, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) said in a statement.     

Total 11.44 million telephone connections (wireless and wireline) were added in May compared to 11.75 million connections added in the previous month. With this, the telecom subscriber base stood at 452.91 million in May against 441.47 million in April.     

The overall teledensity, calculated on the basis of the number of people using phones for a population of 100, has reached 38.88 at the end of May against 37.94 in April, Trai said.     

The total wireless subscribers (GSM, CDMA and WLL(F)) base stood at 415.25 million at the end of May 2009 with the addition of 11.59 million wireless subscribers.     

In the wireline segment, the subscriber base has decreased marginally by 0.15 million to 37.66 million in the month of May 2009 against 37.81 million subscribers in April 2009, registering a slight decrease of, Trai added.     

Total broadband subscriber base has reached 6.40 million in May, as compared to 6.28 million in the previous month, Trai said.