The number of telephone subscribers touched 543.20 million at the end of November, taking tele-density closer to the half-way mark, driven by a record 17.65 million new additions in wireless telephony, sectoral regulator Trai said on Wednesday.
The telephone subscribers base rose from 525.65 million in October, registering a growth rate of 3.34 per cent, to 543.20 million in November. With this record addition, the overall tele-density has touched 46.32 per cent.
The wireless subscriber base rose from 488.40 million in October to 506.04 million in November, a monthly growth of 3.61 per cent. Wireless tele-density is at 43.15 per cent now. Aided by low tariff plans like per-second billing, the mobile operators have been adding large number of new subscribers one month after another.
In November, the GSM operators added 11.64 million new users with Bharti Airtel adding 2.8 million. The two dual technology operators -- RCom and Tata Tele-- have added 2.2 million and 3.3 million users in the month.
In fact, Tata Tele added the highest number of subscribers in November. Maintaining its downward spiral, the wireline subscriber base declined from 37.25 million in October to 37.16 million at the end of November.
The state-run BSNL and MTNL hold 85.35 per cent of the wireline market. However, they lost 0.13 million subscribers in November, bringing down the overall wireline tele-density to 3.17 per cent.
The total broadband subscriber base has increased from 7.40 million in October to 7.57 million in November, showing a growth of 2.26 per cent.
