Every 12th Indian has a phone

16.4 mn more users in Mar-Dec

The wireless telephony segment added 1.8 million subscribers in January, taking the mobile subscriber base to over 49 million. Of the new additions, GSM connections accounted for 1.27 million, while CDMA 496,000.

Both GSM and CDMA operators, however, failed to match their growth in December 2004, when they added 512,000 and 1.4 million subscribers, respectively.

Data released by the department of telecommunications today revealed that tele-density rose 2.59 per cent in March-December 2004 to reach 8.59 per cent, with over 16.4 million telephone lines added during this period.

The total number of phone lines in India stood at 92.9 million at the end of December, as per DoT data. This means that every 12th Indian now has a telephone connection.

According to data released by the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), which represents nine GSM carriers, the GSM base in the country totalled 38.65 million on January 31, 2005.

The Association of Unified Service Providers of India (AUSPI) also released its figures today, which show that in the CDMA category, the total subscriber base stood at 10.4 million on January 31, 2005.

The largest player, Bharti, which enjoys a market share of 26.50 per cent and a subscriber base of 10.2 million, added 350,000 new users in January against 410,000 in December.

For state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), with a market share of 22.44 per cent and 8.7 million, its numbers were up by 136,000 in January, against 286,000 in December, 2004.

For CDMA operators, Reliance added 374,000 subscribers in January taking its subscriber base to 9.5 million, while Tata Tele added 120,000 customers, taking the company's mobile base across 900,000.

In wireline services, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd's base was down by 20,354 connections in January with a total of 4.6 million subscribers. The state-owned unit, which provides services in Mumbai and Delhi, also added 6,689 WLL subscribers to touch 188,000. BSNL did not release its numbers.

"In rural areas, however, only BSNL provided direct exchange lines and village panchayat telephones. Against the 473,000 telephones provided in rural areas during April-December 2003, BSNL provided 765,000 telephones during the current year. It also provided 3,138 VPTs in the last nine months," the DoT release on tele-density said.

It said key developments in the telecom sector included the waiver of registration charges for booking of leased lines and BSNL's memorandum of understanding with Steel Authority of India Ltd for the supply of raw material for steel cables for a year.