MNP requests cross one crore in May

NEW DELHI, INDIA: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said on Thursday that the Mobile Number Portability requests increased from 85.41 lakh subscribers at the end of April 2011 to 105.70 lakh subscribers at the end of May 2011, thus showing a 24 per cent increase.

Out of these requests around 6.32 lakh are from Haryana where MNP was implemented from November 25, 2010. In the rest of the country, in MNP Zone-I (Northern & Western India) maximum number of requests have been received in Gujarat (10.53 lakh) followed by Rajasthan (8.25 lakh) whereas in MNP Zone-II (Southern & Eastern India) maximum number of requests have been received in Karnataka (7.95 lakh) followed by Tamil Nadu Service area(7.74 lakh).

According to TRAI, the number of mobile phone subscribers in India was 840.28 million in May with Anil Ambani-led Reliance Communications alone adding 2.5 million subscribers.

Bharti Airtel and Vodafone added 2.45 million each while Idea Cellular added 1.8 million subscribers.

TRAI also said the broadband subscriber base in India grew 0.92 per cent from 12.01 million in April to 12.12 million in May 2011.

While the wireless user base grew 1.61 per cent with an addition of 13.35 million subscribers, from 826 million in April, the total number of telephone subscribers, including fixed-line holders, touched 874.68 million, showing a a growth of 1.53 per cent.

Fixed-line subscriber base falling

However, fixed-line subscribers fell to 34.40 million at the end of May from 34.55 million in April.

The data also said the subscription in urban areas grew from 573.36 million in April 2011 to 580.62 million at the end of May 2011. Rural subscription increased from 288.12 million to 294.07 million.

The growth of rural subscription (2.06 per cent) is higher than the urban subscription (1.27 per cent). The overall urban teledensity has increased from 159.63 to 161.37 and rural teledensity increased from 34.47 to 35.15.