India gets 250 mn phones two months before target

The total number of wireless subscribers in the country "" including GSM, CDMA and fixed mobile "" has reached 209.08 million and the tele-density stood at 21.85 per cent as on September 30 this year. The total telephone subscriber base stood at 248 million, much ahead of the target month of December.

The wireless segment added 7.80 million subscribers in September, compared with 8.31 million users accrued during the comparable period of August.

During the July-September period, Indian operators added 43.97 million users, according to data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).

Keeping the growth projections on conservative scale, the subscriber number has already crossed 250 million. This means that the 500 million target for 2010 can be achieved, Trai said in a statement here today.

The total number of telephones (wireless and wired) in the country stood at 248.66 million, compared with 241.02 million in August this year. The overall tele-density reached 21.85 per cent in September, as against 21.20 per cent in August.

In the wireline segment, subscriber base addition was lower at 39.58 million in September, compared with 39.73 million during the previous month.

During the first six months (April-September) of the 2007-08 fiscal, 42.80 million telephone subscribers were added, as against 29.70 million recorded during the corresponding period of the previous year.

The target of 15 per cent of tele-density by 2010 as set by the National Telecom Policy of 1999 was achieved in September 2006, four years ahead of the schedule.

The total number of broadband subscribers reached 2.67 million as on September, adding around 110,000 connections.

The addition during the first six months of the current fiscal stood at 330,000 as compared with 470,000 during the corresponding period a year ago.