At the end of February, India had 892 million telephone connections, according to a new report. The number of telephone subscribers decreased marginally in the month of February, the latest report by telecom regulatory authority of India said.
More than 87% of the Indian wireless market share is held by private telecom operators, but when it comes to the wireline market the two PSU operators, BSNL and MTNL, hold 79.20% of the market share.
Here are some key findings from the report.
Overall subscriber outlook
At the end of February 2013 the number of telephone subscribers in India stand at 892.02 million.
The current subscription trend is showing a decrease, with a monthly growth rate of -0.13%.
The share of urban subscribers has shown a decreasing trend and is currently at 61.08% and rural subscribers showed an increasing trend and is currently at 39.92%.
The NCR region currently has the highest teledensity with 221.45 million subscribers and Bihar the lowest with 46.09 million subscribers.
The overall tele-density in India has been showing a negative trend since July 2102 and currently stands at 72.90%. This is mainly dues to disconnection of inactive mobile subscribers by the telecom service providers.
Wireless segment outlook
Wireless subscriber base is showing a negative trend and currently stands at 861.62 million.
Private operators hold 87.73% of the wireless market share. Telecom operator Bharti leads the pack with a market share of 21.66%.
The share of urban subscriber base is showing a decrease and currently is at 60.50% whereas the rural subscriber base is showing an increase and is currently at 39.50%.
The urban wireless teledensity stands at 139.83 million and the rural wireless teledensity at 40.01 million.
Wireline segment outlook
Wireline segment is also showing a negative trend and currently stands at 30.36 million subscribers.
The urban subscriber base is showing an upward trend and currently stands at 77.65% and the rural subscriber base is at 22.35%, showing a negative trend.
The two PSU operators, BSNL and MTNL hold 79.20% of the wire-line market share.
Mobile number portability outlook
As of February 2013, 86.83 million subscribers have placed request for porting their mobile numbers to different service providers.
In Zone-I (Northern and Western India) the maximum number of request have been received in Rajasthan i.e 8.25 million.
In Zone-II (Southern and Eastern India) the maximum number of requests have been place in Karnataka i.e 10.45 million.
Broadband (? 256 Kbps download) outlook
The broadband subscriber base is showing a negative trend and currently stands at 15.00 million.
This same subscriber base has shown a yearly positive trend of 10.76% since February 2012.
Currently there are 160 ISPs providing broadband service in the country.
PSU operator leads the broadband market share with 66.0% followed by private operator Bharti with 9.3%.
You can view the full report here.
