Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has revealed in a report that the telephone subscribers in India have crossed 1.07 billion at the end of September, registering a growth of 1.36 per cent over the previous quarter. This reflects year-on-year (Y-O-Y) growth of 5.05% over the same quarter of last year.
TRAI in its latest report titled as ‘Indian Telecom Services Performance Indicators for July-September, 2016’ states that the subscription in urban areas has increased to 624.38 million at the end of September 16, while the rural subscription has seen a decline from 450.41 million to 449.86 million.
With a net addition of 14.63 million subscribers during the quarter, total wireless (GSM+CDMA) subscriber base increased from 1,035.12 million at the end of Jun-16 to 1,049.74 million at the end of Sep-16, registering a growth rate of 1.41 per cent over the previous quarter.
According to the report, the wireline subscriber base further declined from 25.74 million to 24.49 million at the end of Sep-16, registering a quarterly decline rate of 1.01 per cent.
“Total number of Internet subscribers has increased from 350.48 million at the end of Jun-16 to 367.48 million at the end of Sep-16, registering a quarterly growth rate of 4.85%. Out of 367.48 million, wired Internet subscribers are 21.26 million and wireless internet subscribers are 346.22 million,” the report further adds.
The report further highlights that the Gross Revenue (GR) and Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) of Telecom Service Sector for the quarter ended September 2016 was secured at Rs. 71,379 crores and Rs. 50,539 crores, respectively.
“GR and AGR declined by 2.68 percent and 5.33 percent respectively in the quarter ended September 2016 as compared to previous quarter. The year-on-year (Y-O-Y) growth in GR and AGR over the same quarter in last year has been 9.82 per cent and 9.26 per cent respectively,” it added.