TRAI has released the Indian Telecom Services Performance Indicator Report for the Quarter ending December 2012. This Report provides a broad perspective of the Telecom Services and presents the key parameters and growth trends for the Telecom Services as well as Cable TV, DTH & Radio Broadcasting services in India for the period covering October to December 2012, and is compiled on the basis of information furnished by the Service Providers.
The number of telephone subscribers in India declined from 937.70 million at the end of Sep-12 to 895.51 million at the end of Dec-12, registering a negative growth of 4.50% over the previous quarter sep-12. This reflects year-on-year (Y-O-Y) negative growth of 3.35% over the same quarter of last year. The overall Tele-density in India has declined from 77.04 as on September 30th, 2012 to 73.34 as on December 31st, 2012.
Trends in Telephone subscribers and Teledensity in India
- Subscription in Urban Areas decreased from 595.69 million at the end of Sep-12 to 556.96 million at the end of Dec-12, and Urban Teledensity declined from 161.13 to 149.90.
- Rural subscription decreased from 342.01 million to 338.54 million, and Rural Teledensity also declined from 40.36 to 39.85.
- Share of subscription in Rural areas out of total subscription increased from 36.47% at the end of Sep-12 to 37.80% at the end of Dec-12.
Composition of Telephone Subscribers
- With a decline of 41.90 million subscribers during the quarter, total wireless (GSM+CDMA) subscriber base registered a negative growth of 4.62% over the previous quarter and subscriber base declined from 906.62 million at the end of Sep-12 to 864.72 million at the end of Dec-12.
- The year-on-year (Y-O-Y) negative growth rate of Wireless subscribers for Dec-12 is 3.26%. Wireless Teledensity decreased from 74.49 at the end of Sep-12 to 70.82 at the end of Dec-12.
- Wireline subscriber base further declined from 31.08 million at the end of Sep-12 to 30.79 million at the end of Dec-12, bringing down the wireline Teledensity from 2.55 at the end of Sep-12 to 2.52 at the end of Dec-12.
- Internet subscribers increased from 24.01 million at the end of Sep-12 to 25.33 million at the end of Dec-12, registering a quarterly growth rate of 5.49%. Top 10 ISPs together hold 95.42% of the total Internet subscriber base.
- Number of Broadband subscribers increased from 14.68 million at the end of Sep-12 to 14.98 million at the end of Dec-12, registering a quarterly growth of 2.02% and Y-O-Y growth of 12.23%.
- Share of Broadband subscription in total Internet subscription decreased from 61.16% at the end of Sep-12 to 59.15% at the end of Dec-12. 84.82% of the Broadband subscribers are using Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) technology.
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