India adds 9.16 mn mobile connections in August

NEW DELHI, INDIA: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said on Wednesday that Indian mobile telecoms firms added 9.16 million wireless users in August, pointing to upward trend in the Indian telecom sector.

With a subscriber base of 305.24 million in August 2008, India is the second largest wireless market in the world.

A press release from the TRAI said that a total of 9.03 million telephone connections (wireline and wireless) have been added during August 2008 as compared to 9.06 million connections added in July 2008. The total number of telephone connections reaches 343.87 million at the end of August 2008 as compared to 334.84 million in July 2008.

The overall tele-density in the country has reached 29.83 per cent at the end of August 2008 as against 29.08 per cent in July 2008, said TRAI.

While a total of 9.16 million wireless subscribers have been added in August, in July 2008 the telecom operators had added 9.22 million wireless connections.

However, in the wireline segment, the subscriber base showed a declining trend. It decreased to 38.63 million in August as against 38.76 million subscribers in July.

In the wireless segment Bharti Airtel signed up 2.7 million customers in August thus making its customer base reach 74.8 million. In the same period Reliance Communications gave 1.75 new connections and its customer base touched 54.3 million.

Vodafone Essar signed up 1.81 million new users to have a total of 52.8 million and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), which now has 43.2 million mobile users, added 638,118 connections in August.

The TRAI release said that the total Broadband subscribers base in India has reached 4.73 million by the end of August 2008 as compared to 4.57 million by the end of July.