According to the latest report (March 2011) released by TRAI – India now has a total of 846.32 Million Telecom subscribers, comprising of of 811.59 Mobile subscribers & 34.73 wireline subscribers. The Indian Tele-density now stands at 70.89%!
If anything, the growth in mobile subscription is only increasing. Monthly Mobile Subscriber additions in last few months has been averaging about 17-18 million, but in month of March, subscriber additions crossed 20.2 million. Total Mobile subscriber base increased from 791.38 mn in Feb 2011 to 811.59 mn at the end of March 2011, registering a growth of 2.55%.
Urban Vs Rural Mobile Subscribers
Urban subscribers are still going strong with 12.88 mn additions , while 7.33 mn rural folks were added to the tally! While the Urban Teledensity currently stands at 150%, rural teledensity is close to 33%. Essentially what it means is, in cities, for every 2 individuals there are 3 mobile numbers – And in rural areas, there is 1 mobile number for every 3 individuals!
For Pan-India telecom subscriber base, 66.65 percent subscribers reside in Urban areas, whereas 33.35 are in rural areas.
Mobile Number Portability Requests
Less than expected number of people actually took advantage of MNP in first couple of months of MNP launch. However, MNP requests are now picking up steam. 64.23 Lakh MNP requests were made in March 2011 as compared to 38.33 lakh in Feb 2011.
