The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released subscriber data for December 2013.As per the regulator, the total number of telephone subscribers in the country increased from 910.14 million in end-November 2013 to 915.19 million in December 2013, reflecting a monthly growth of 0.56 per cent.
Meanwhile, the share of urban subscribers in the overall subscriber base has declined from 59.45 per cent to 59.42 per cent in the same period, whereas the share of rural subscribers has increased from 40.55 per cent to 40.58 per cent. With this, the overall teledensity in the country increased from 73.69 per cent in end-November, 2013 to 74.02 per cent in end-December 2013.
Overall, the number of subscriptions in urban areas increased from 546.64 million in end-November, 2013 to 549.40 million in end-December, 2013. Similarly, the subscriptions in rural areas increased from 363.50 million to 365.79 million during the same period. The monthly growth rate of urban and rural subscriptions is 0.51 per cent and 0.63 per cent, respectively. Overall urban teledensity has increased from 144.46 per cent to 144.95 per cent during the same period, while rural teledensity increased from 42.43 per cent to 42.67 per cent.
The country?s wireless subscriber base registered a marginal monthly increase of 0.59 per cent during this period, from 881.13 million to 886.30 million. Overall wireless teledensity stood at 71.69 per cent in end-December 2013.
Private operators account for the lion?s share of the wireless market, at 88.73 per cent, while Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) together account for 11.27 per cent.
Operator-wise, Bharti Airtel had 22.39 per cent market share in end-December 2013, followed by Vodafone India (18.10 per cent), Idea Cellular (14.52 per cent), Reliance Communications (13.23 per cent), BSNL (10.86 per cent) and Aircel (7.55 per cent).
Of the total wireless user base, TRAI has said that 762.40 million were active on the date of peak visitor location register (VLR) for the month of December 2013. The proportion of VLR subscribers stood at approximately 86.02 per cent of the total wireless subscriber base.
Company-wise, Idea Cellular had the highest proportion of active subscribers (100.98 per cent), followed by Bharti Airtel (96.23 per cent) and Vodafone India (95.63 per cent).
At the end of December 2013, 109.37 million subscribers opted for the mobile number portability (MNP) facility. In Northern and Western India, the maximum number of requests had been received in Rajasthan (10.97 million), followed by Gujarat (9.45 million). In Southern and Eastern India, the most MNP requests had been received in Karnataka (12.54 million), followed by Andhra Pradesh (10.04 million).
The wireline segment continued to decline, from 29.01 million in November 2013 to 28.89 million in December 2013. Overall wireless teledensity in December 2013 stood at 2.34 per cent.
Operator-wise, BSNL and MTNL accounted for the lion?s share of this market, with a combined share of 77.79 per cent. The two companies were followed by Bharti Airtel (11.61 per cent), Tata Teleservices Limited (5.22 per cent) and Reliance Communications (4.30 per cent).
As per TRAI, in December 2013, the wireline broadband subscriber base stood at 14.54 million and the top five companies in this segment were BSNL, Bharti Airtel, MTNL, Hathway and Beam Telecom
