According to data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), 98.5 per cent of the country?s inhabited villages have village public telephone (VPT) connections, in the quarter ended March 31, 2011.

According to TRAI, Himachal Pradesh has the highest rural teledensity of 70.23 per cent, followed by Punjab (56.92 per cent), Kerala (53.25 per cent), Haryana (51.23 per cent) and Tamil Nadu (48.92 per cent, including Chennai). Bihar continues to have the lowest rural teledensity of 21.86 per cent, followed by Madhya Pradesh (22.92 per cent).

The rural wireless subscriber base in the country increased from 250.89 million at the end of December, 2010, to 273.54 million at the end of the March quarter. The rural user base grew by 9.03 per cent during the quarter ended March, 2011, as against 10.49 per cent in the quarter ended December, 2010.

Idea Cellular has the highest proportion of rural subscribers to its total subscriber base and this rose to 51.62 per cent at the end of the March quarter from 49.73 per cent at the end of December 2010.