India's mobile subscription base crosses 873 mn

New Delhi: Indian telecom service providers added 7.9 million new subscribers in September, taking the total number of wireless users in the country to 873.61 million, according to telecom regulator TRAI. The total telecom subscriber base of the country stood at 906.9 million at the end of September, taking the overall tele density to 75.48 (telecom connections per 100 people), a TRAI statement said today.

The number of wireline subscribers fell to 33.3 million in September from 34.07 million in August, it added. There was marginal increase in India's broadband subscriber base to 12.84 million in September from 12.69 million in the previous month. About 25.70 lakh subscribers submitted request for MNP in September. Since the introduction of MNP in November last year, about 206.29 lakh subscribers across the country had submitted requests, till September, for changing their service providers while retaining their mobile numbers under MNP.

In MNP Zone-I (Northern and Western India), maximum number of requests have been received in Gujarat (20.09 lakh), followed by Maharashtra (16.93 lakh). In MNP Zone-II (Southern and Eastern India), maximum number of requests have been received in Andhra Pradesh (16.47 lakh) followed by Karnataka Service area (16.16 lakh).

The number of active mobile subscribers during September, according to visitor location register (VLR) data, was 617.76 million. VLR numbers provide details on active customers at any given point of time, excluding 'switched-off' and 'out-of-coverage area' customers. Meanwhile, growth in the wireless category was led by Idea Cellular which added 1.73 million users, taking its subscriber base to 100.18 million at the end of September.

Bharti Airtel added 0.93 million subscribers in the reported month, taking its user base to 172.78 million. Reliance Communications added 1.02 million new users to take its total customer base to over 147.08 million. Vodafone added 0.84 million new customers during the month, taking its user base to 144.99 million, while Aircel added over 0.60 million users during the period.

State-owned BSNL added 0.38 million new users, taking its total subscriber base to 95.79 million. The other state-run telecom company MTNL saw 28,360 new users registering for its service in the reported month.