The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on Monday said in a report that the number of telephone connections in January increased by 4.39 million. The Monthly Telecom Scenario report said that India had 1175.82 million telephone connections at the end of January as compared to 1171.43 million in December 2019. The DoT said that Jammu and Kashmir circle recorded a maximum rise in connections with over 1.2 million subscribers being added in the circle. Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh East rounded off the top three in subscriber additions while Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and North East were the three circles that recorded maximum decrease in telephone connections.
Three Circles Added Over 2.5 Million Connections
The Indian government suspended the telecom services in Jammu and Kashmir in August 2019 as it abolished the special status to the former state and bifurcated it into two Union Territories. The postpaid services were restored in October 2019 while the prepaid services were restored around the third week of January.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh East circles recorded an increase of 7,60,997 and 6,29,337 connections in January. The top three circles including Jammu and Kashmir along with Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh East added over 2.5 million connections.
With a decrease of 3,48,853 connections in January, Madhya Pradesh took the top spot for the states with maximum decrease followed by Bihar with a decrease of 1,01,827 connections. The North East rounded off the top three with a decrease of 53,988 connections in January.
India Registers 88.74% Tele-Density in January
The report said that the tele-density in India at the end of January stood at 88.74% with Himachal Pradesh registering the highest tele-density at 149% followed by 124.12% in Kerala. Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka rounded off the top five states with highest tele-density.
With a tele-density of just over 237%, Delhi was said to the top metro in terms followed by Mumbai and Kolkata. In December, the country recorded an overall tele-density of 88.49%.
The wireless segment represented the maximum number of telephone connections with a share of 98.34% while the wireline segment had a share of 1.66% at the end of January.
Number of Internet Subscribers Touch 718 Million
Additionally, the report said that the number of the internet subscribers which includes both broadband and narrowband increased to 718.75 million at the end of December 2019. The DoT said that the number of telephone subscribers at the end of December 2018 were 604.21 million.
Further, the number of subscribers accessing the internet through cellular connections were 696.36 million at the end of December 2019. The number of wired internet subscribers touched 22 million at the end of December 2019 with 19.14 million on broadband connections while 3.25 million were on narrowband connections.
