The number of telephone subscribers in the country rose 0.16 percent, a meagre growth compared with that of previous months, taking the total subscriber base to 952.91 million as on April 30, 2012. The total user base in the country stood at 951.34 million as on March 31, 2012.
The wireline user base declined to 31.89 million as on end of April 2012 compared with 32.17 million a month ago, pulling the overall wireline teledensity fell to 2.63 in April (2.66 in March). Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) hold 80.40 percent of the country’s wireline market share.
Airtel led the additions by roping in 2 million new subscribers. The GSM operator had a total subscriber base of 183.29 million at the end of the month. Idea Cellular witnessed the highest addition of 1.48 million new users, while Uninor added 1.11 million users. Almost of the telecom companies added users during the month, with Aircel adding over 1 million new users in April. Reliance Communications added 0.5 million, Vodafone India added 0.81 million, Sistema Shyam Teleservices added 0.2 million and Videocon added 0.15 million new users.
The country’s total broadband subscriber base rose to 13.95 million at the end of April 2012, a 1.13 percent rise from 13.79 million posted during the previous month. The yearly growth in broadband subscribers is 15.04 percent during the last one year (April 2011 to April 2012).
There are 156 Internet Service Providers providing broadband services in India and BSNL tops the chart with a 9-million subscriber base. Bharti Airtel (1.36 million) is in second position, while MTNL (1.05 million) was in the third position.
