The number of telephone subscribers in India decreased to 897.02 million at the end of April, 2013 from 898.02 million at the end of March 2013, showing a fall in monthly growth rate by 0.11 percent, government data showed Friday.
The share of urban subscribers has decreased to 60.71 percent from 61.11 percent whereas share of rural subscribers has increased from 38.89 percent to 39.29 percent in the month of April 2013. With this, the overall teledensity in India decreased to 73.16 at the end of April, 2013 from 73.32 of the previous month.
Subscription in the urban areas decreased from 548.80 million in February, 2013 to 544.55 million at the end of April, 2013. Subscription in rural areas increased from 349.22 million to 352.47 million during the same period.
The monthly growth rate of urban subscription fell by 0.77 percent; while rural subscription rose by 0.93 percent.
The data revealed mobile number portability (MNP) is catching up with the people. "Mobile number portability requests increased from 89.70 million subscribers at the end of March 2013 to 91.73 million at the end of April 2013. In the month of April 2013 alone, 2.03 million requests have been made for MNP," it said.
Active wireless subscribers in April 2013 were 724.52 million, which is 83.56 percent of the total subscribers. Broadband subscription reached 15.09 million in April 2013 from 15.05 million in March 2013.