India Telecom User Base Rises To 525 Million

The number of telephone subscribers in India has increased to 525.65 million as on October 31, 2009, compared with 509.03 million posted in September-2009.

The subscriber growth registered a 3.26 per cent, which helped in which helped in improving overall tele-density in India to 44.87.

Wireless subscriber base increased from 471.73 million in September 2009 to 488.40 million at the end of October 2009 at a monthly growth rate of 3.53 per cent, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

Wireline subscriber base declined from 37.31 million in September to 37.25 million in October. BSNL and MTNL, the two public sector operators hold 85.46 per cent of wireline market share. However, they lost 0.12 million subscribers in October. Overall wireline tele-density is 3.18.

Total broadband subscriber base rose to 7.40 million in October, an increase of 2.49 per cent from 7.22 million registered in September this month.

TRAI had released the information based on data provided by operators and their associations.