Mobile phone usage continues to boom, tele-density of 21.87%

New Delhi, Jan 1 (UNI) The country's wireless telecom segment continued to boom with a growth rate of 13 per cent adding 24.15 million subscribers and clocking a tele-density of 21.87 per cent, telecom regulator TRAI today said.

Other highlights of the quarter ended September 2007 include internet subscribers going up to 9.63 million while broadband user base touched 2.67 million.

Releasing its quarterly performance report, TRAI said the subscriber base has reached 248.65 million for the quarter ending September 2007 against 225.01 million for the previous quarter ending June 2007, registering a growth of 13 per cent.

The rural wireline subscriber base saw a dip of 2.28 per cent to 11.99 million in September 2007 from 12.27 million in June 2007.

While, the rural wireless subscriber base witnessed a hike of 17.59 per cent to 43.98 million in September 2007 from 37.40 million in June 2007.

The country's internet wireline subscribers has reached 9.63 million for the quarter ended September 2007, against 9.22 million during the previous quarter registering a growth of about 4.37 per cent, whereas the wireless subscribers were 46.37 million for the quarter ending September 2007, TRAI said in a statement.

The number of broadband subscribers with a download speed of 256 kbps or more is 2.67 million for the quarter ending September 2007, as compared to 2.42 million for the previous quarter. The growth rate of broadband subscribers in this quarter is 10.33 per cent.

TRAI also said the state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has reported a subscriber base of about 4.42 million internet subscribers against 4.07 million at the end of last quarter.

It added that the number of Public Call Offices (PCOs) in the country also increased to 5.78 million from 5.60 million, registering a growth of 3.21 per cent for the quarter ended September 2007.

The All-India blended average revenue per user (ARPU) per month has declined by 7.4 per cent from Rs 297 in June 2007 to Rs 275 in September 2007.

The ARPU for postpaid services has shown a decline of 3.5 per cent to Rs 632 in September from Rs 655 in June 2007. A dip of 7.2 per cent for prepaid services from Rs 248 in June 2007 to Rs 230 in September 2007 was also seen.

For the CDMA segment, the ARPU in September 2007 is Rs 173 as compared to Rs 206 in June 2007.

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