In the recently released statistics compiled by the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), the year 2005 ended with a mobile subscriber base of 76 million, as compared to a fixed line user base of 49 million. This rapid growth in the telecom market, especially in the mobile segment, pushed up the national teledensity to 11.43 per cent in December 2005 as against 8.62 at the end of 2004.
With the mobile subscriber base overtaking the fixed line subscriber base in mid2005, mobile teledensity surpassed fixed line teledensity across the country, barring Kerala and the north-eastern states.
In all the metros, the increase in mobile teledensity was nearly twice that for fixed lines, with Delhi registering the highest at 43.8 per cent for cellular and 18 per cent for landlines, followed by Chennai at 41.41 per cent and 22.62 per cent, Mumbai at 40 per cent and 19.18 per cent, and Kolkata at 20.02 per cent and 12.34 per cent.
In Kerala, mobile teledensity was 10.88 per cent while fixed line teledensity was 12.37 per cent. The other B circle to cross mobile double-digit teledensity was Punjab (16.37 per cent mobile and 9.26 per cent fixed). The other circles close to doubledigit mobile penetration were Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat and Karnataka.
However, despite mobile growth catching up with the growth rate in China, at least 10 circles had a penetration of less than 5 per cent. These included Uttar Pradesh (East), Uttar Pradesh (West), Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, Assam and the northeast.
According to the Ministry of Communications, rural growth registered a visible increase since 1991, albeit marginal compared to urban growth. Rural teledensity went up from 0.4 per cent at the time of announcement of the New Telecom Policy, 1999 to 1.8 per cent in December 2005. Rural teledensity in large and populous states like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Jammu & Kashmir, Chhattisgarh, Assam and Bihar has been steadily improving over the years.
The ministry is confident that telecom growth in rural areas will take off in 2006, more so after the Department of Telecommunications recently reached an agreement with private and state-owned operators to use the Universal Service Obligation Fund towards mobile telephony in rural India.
