As per the regulator, the number of telephone subscribers decreased to 897.02 million at the end of April 2013 from 898.02 million at the end of March 2013. This reflected a monthly growth rate of -0.11 per cent. The share of urban subscribers has decreased to 60.71 per cent, from 61.11 per cent, while the share of rural subscribers has increased from 38.89 per cent to 39.29 per cent, in the period under consideration.

With this, the overall teledensity in the country decreased to 73.16 per cent at the end of April 2013 from 73.32 per cent in March 2013.

Subscription in urban areas decreased from 548.80 million in February 2013 to 544.55 million at the end of April 2013. Meanwhile, the rural subscriber base increased from 349.22 million to 352.47 million during the same period. The monthly growth rate of urban and rural subscription is -0.77 per cent 0.93 per cent respectively. The overall urban teledensity has decreased from 146.96 per cent to 145.58 and rural teledensity increased from 41.02 per cent to 41.37 per cent.

Meanwhile, in the wireless segment, the overall subscriber base declined from 867.80 million in March 2013 to 867.02 as of end-April 2013, registering a monthly decrease of 0.09 per cent. The share of urban wireless subscribers decreased from 60.53 per cent to 60.11 per cent, while the share of rural wireless subscribers increased from 39.47 per cent to 39.89 per cent.

Operator-wise, private telecom companies hold the lion?s share of the market, at 88.02 per cent. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited hold 11.98 per cent market share. Of the total 867.02 million wireless subscribers, 724.52 million were active on the date of peak visitor location register (VLR) in April 2013. The proportion of VLR subscribers is approximately 83.56 per cent of the total wireless subscriber base reported by the service providers.

Operator-wise, Idea Cellular lead the tally with 98.11 per cent active subscribers, followed by Bharti Airtel (95.21 per cent).

Circle-wise, Maharashtra has the highest proportion of VLR subscribers, at 88.96 per cent, followed by Madhya Pradesh (88.09 per cent) and Assam (87.34 per cent).

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