Total Telephone User Base Rises to 1.03 Billion in September: Trai

Total telephone subscriber base increased marginally to 1.0226 billion at the end of September on the back of rise in wireless users even as the fixed line base continued to fall, Trai said Wednesday.

As per data shared by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), the total telephone base in the country stood at 1.0141 billion at the end of August.

The wireless subscribers increased to 996.6 million at the end of September from 988.1 million in August while fixed line base declined to 25.9 million from 26.0 million.

The overall tele-density increased to 80.98 percent in September from 80.40 percent in the preceding month. Trai had earlier said that 4.17 million users submitted requests for mobile number portability (MNP) in September.

"With this, the cumulative MNP requests increased from 172.2 million at the end of August, 2015 to 176.3 million at the end of September, 2015," Trai said.

The telecom regulator said, as on September 30, the private access service providers held 91.64 percent market share of the wireless subscribers, whereas state-run BSNL and MTNL held only 8.36 percent share.

In the reported period, Idea Cellular added 2.637 million subscribers to take its overall base to 166.5 million, while Bharti Airtel added 2.228 million users and increased its base to 235.2 million.

Vodafone and BSNL added 1.593 million and 1.048 million users, respectively, to take their bases to 188.1 million and 79.6 million.

Reliance Communications added 435,000 customers and its base rose to 110.3 million at the end of September, whereas Aircel added 247,000 users to take its base to 83.9 million. Telenor added 231,000 subscribers and its base at the end of September stood at 47.7 million while Sistema Shyam Teleservices lost 75,455 users and its base reduced to 8.360 million.

State-run MTNL, which offers services in Delhi and Mumbai, added 10,544 subscribers to take its base to 3.598 million at the end of September whereas Tata Teleservices added 2,719 users and its base stood at 62.0 million.

The number of broadband subscribers increased from 117.3 million at the end of August to 120.8 million at the end of September with monthly growth rate of 3.02 percent, Trai said as per reports garnered from the service providers.

"Top five service providers constituted 84.01 percent market share of total broadband subscribers at the end of September. These service providers were Bharti Airtel (28.1 million), Vodafone (23.7 million), Idea Cellular (19.6 million), BSNL (18.9 million) and Reliance Communications (11.0 million)," Trai added.