Telephone user base expands 1.49% to 965 million

Total telephone subscriber base grew by 1.49 per cent to 965.52 million at the end of June, 2012, according to the sectoral regulator Trai.

The subscriber base stood at 951.34 million at the end of March 2012.

According to the Trai data for April-June quarter, total wireless (GSM and CDMA) subscriber base grew by 1.62 per cent during the April-June quarter to 934.09 million as compared to 919.17 million at the end of March 2012.

However, the monthly average revenue per user for GSM operators declined to Rs 95 for the quarter from Rs 97 in the January-March quarter.

Minutes of usage per user for GSM operators remained flat at 346.

Continuing its declining trend, the wireline users base fell to 31.43 million at June, from 32.17 million at March 2012.

Subscription in urban areas grew to 621.76 million in April-June, from 620.53 million at the end of March 2012.

However, the urban teledensity declined slightly to 169.03 from 169.55.

The rural teledensity increased to 40.66 from 39.22 while the rural subscription increased to 343.76 million during the quarter, from 330.82

million at March end.

Internet subscriber base grew 0.66 per cent during the quarter to reach 23.01 million at June end, from 22.86 million at March end.

The broadband user base reached 14.57 million from 13.81 million during the same period.

Gross revenue and adjusted gross revenue of telecom service sector for the quarter has been Rs 52,512.10 crore (Rs 525.12 billion) and Rs 35,499.01 crore (Rs 354.99 billion) respectively.

In GSM players, Bharti Airtel maintained its leadership position with 22.52 per cent market share and a user base of 187.30 million at the end of June 2012.

It added the maximum number of users during the April-June quarter followed by Idea and Vodafone.

Airtel added 6.02 million users while Idea and Vodafone added 4.44 million and 3.24 million respectively.

The user base of Idea and Vodafone stood at 117.16 million and 153.71 million respectively at the end of June 2012.

State-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited added 0.28 million new users and its user base stood at 94.79 million.

Another PSU MTNL's user base was at 5.33 million during the same period.