The telecom subscriber base in the country declined by 10 lakh to 89.7 crore users at the end of April from a month earlier, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India said on Thursday.
"The number of telephone subscribers in India decreased to 897.02 million at the end of April 2013 from 898.02 million at the end of March 2013, thereby showing a monthly growth rate of -0.11 percent," the TRAI said in a report.
In March, the subscriber base increased by 60 lakhs over the previous month. The share of urban subscribers fell to 60.71 percent in April from 61.11 percent in March, while the proportion of rural users increased to 39.29 percent from 38.89 percent a month earlier.
The overall teledensity dropped to 73.16 at the end of April from 73.32. The number of mobile subscribers fell to 86.7 crore from
86.78 crore. State-run BSNL lost 22.36 lakh customers, followed by Sistema Shyam (MTS India) losing 18.96 lakh users, Tata Teleservices 7.84 lakh customers, MTNL 1 lakh, Loop Mobile 83,263 and HFCL 15,616 customers.
The peak number of active mobile subscribers in April was 72.45 crore, or 83.56 percent of the total, excluding CDMA customers of BSNL, for which TRAI did not have data. Vodafone registered the highest number of additions with 14.22 lakh new customers, followed by Idea Cellular with 12.84 lakh, Reliance Communications 7.25 lakh, Bharti Airtel 6 lakh, Uninor 1.6 lakh, Videocon 1.3 lakh and Aircel 8,249.
More than 20 lakh mobile subscribers changed service providers, TRAI said.
Bharti Airtel continued to lead in terms of total subscribers, with 18.87 crore customers accounting for a 21.78 percent share. Vodafone had 15.37 crore customers and a share of 17.74 percent, followed by RCom with 12.36 crore customers and a 14.27 percent share.
Broadband subscribers increased to 15.09 million from 15.05 million at the end of March. Yearly growth in broadband users was 8.21 percent.