The Hindu Business Line : 3 million new phone subcribers in August

THE telephone subscriber base in the country has increased by three million in August, touching a new high of additions. The previous highest was in July when 2.72 million new subscribers were added.

The average additions for the first five months of current financial year reached 2.37 million per month as compared to 1.83 million per month during the previous year, according to the numbers released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.

For the mobile segment more than 2.74 million subscribers have been added during August (2.45 million in July). While GSM operators added 2.04 million new subscribers, the rival CDMA players added close to 7 lakh new users.

During the first five months of current financial year approximately 10.35 million mobile subscribers have been added, making it a total of 62.57 million subscribers at the end of August.

In the fixed line segment 0.27 million subscribers were added during August, the same as in July. With this, the subscriber base of fixed lines has reached 47.44 million.

The total subscriber base, including fixed and mobile, has become 110 million taking the tele-density to 10.12 as compared to 9.86 at the end of previous month.

Broadband connections have also continued the steady growth rate since the beginning of 2005. At the end of August, total broadband connections have crossed 5.3 lakh.

The Cellular Operators' Association of India (COAI) said that 75 per cent of all new mobile subscribers chose GSM, thus demonstrating and reiterating the fact that GSM continues to be the predominant driver of growth of the mobile telecommunications market.

Mr T.V. Ramachandran, Director General, COAI said, "GSM tariffs and growth in India would be significantly better if only the favourable spectrum practices that are being applied to CDMA operators were also extended to GSM."

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