India's Tele Density Rises to 18 per cent with 203 million subscribers

The overall teledensity rose to 18% in February 2007 from 17.45% in January 2007 and from 12.18% as on February 28, 2006. As a result, the total number of telephones in the country crossed more than 203 million, as against a total of 196.7 million as on January 31, 2007, i.e. a growth of 3.2%. Thus the country has now become the third largest telecommunication network in the world only next to China and USA. The rapid expansion of the telecom sector maintained its increasing trend with an addition of about 6.3 million phones in the number of telecom subscribers during the month of February - an average daily addition of more than two lakh lines.

During the month, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Delhi added more than three lakh subscribers each in the GSM segment. Almost the entire growth registered during the month was in the wireless segment - with GSM contributing 4.88 million and CDMA contributing 1.35 million, respectively. There was a marginal increase of about 67 thousand subscribers in the fixed line segment. In the CDMA segment, the total subscriber base registered a growth of 2.9% with a net addition of 1.25 million subscribers. Maharashtra telecom circle contributed the maximum to this addition. Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Delhi added more than four lakh subscribers each during the month.

The growth of broadband connections improved further and at the end of January 2006, about 2.12 million broadband connections were provided and coverage of broadband connectivity by public sector service providers has reached 815 cities. Further, the total number of existing ISP licencees is 383.

Under Bharat Nirman Programme, out of the 66,822 villages, so far 39741 villages have been provided with Village Public Telephones (VPTs). The remaining 27081 villages are to be covered by November, this year.

Source : Press Information Bureau

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