Indian mobile service providers added a whopping 20 million new users to their kitty in the month of March this year, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).
With this, India’s mobile subscriber base touched 811.59 million at the end of March, up by 20.21 million from February’s 791.38 million.
Vodafone LED by attracting 18.06 per cent of new mobile users; while 17.53 per cent chose Reliance Communications and 15.86 per cent opted for Airtel.
However, of the total 811.59 million subscribers, only 573.97 million were active on the date of Peak VLR (Visitor Locate Register) for the month of March 2011.
Wireless subscription in urban areas increased from 525.17 million in February to 538.05 million at the end of March. Rural subscription increased from 266.21 million to 273.54 million. This shows higher growth in rural subscription (2.75 per cent) than in urban subscription (2.45 per cent).
The over all wireless tele-density in India has now reached 67.98.
The number of telephone subscribers in India, including wireless and wireline, had increased to 846.32 million at the end of March, registering a growth rate of 2.43 per cent.
Meanwhile, Mobile Number Portability requests had increased from 38.33 lakh subscribers at the end of February 2011 to 64.23 lakh at the end of March, TRAI said.