As per latest TRAI data the number of telephone subscribers in India decreased to 895.51 million at the end of December, 2012 from 921.47 million at the end of November 2012, thereby registering a monthly growth rate of -2.82%. The share of urban subscribers has declined to 62.20% from 62.70% whereas share of rural subscribers has increased to 37.80% in the month of December 2012.
The total wireless subscriber base decreased to 864.72 million at the end of December 2012 as against 890.60 million in November 2012 , registering a monthly growth of –2.91%. This decline has been attributed to large scale disconnections of inactive SIMs by some of the service providers. Wireless subscription in urban areas decreased from 553.91 million in November 2012 to 533.12 million at the end of December 2012. During the same period, the wireless subscription in rural areas decreased from 336.70 million to 331.60 million.
As per the report, out of the total 864.72 million wireless subscribers, 701.60* million were active on the date of Peak VLR for the month of December 2012.
Mobile Number Portability requests increased from 77.13 million subscribers at the end of November 2012 to 80.06 million at the end of December 2012. In the month of December 2012 alone, 2.94 million requests have been made for MNP.
In MNP Zone-I (Northern & Western India) maximum number of requests have been received in Rajasthan (7.59 million) followed by Gujarat (6.94 million) whereas in MNP Zone-II (Southern & Eastern) maximum number of requests have been received in Karnataka (9.90 million) followed by Andhra Pradesh Service area (7.40 million).
The broadband subscription base reached 14.98 million in December 2012 from 14.88 million in November 2012, there by showing a monthly growth of 0.67%. Yearly growth in broadband subscribers is 12.62% during the last one year (December 2011 to December 2012).
As per the report, the wireline subscriber base declined from 30.87 million at the end of November 2012 to 30.79 Million at the end of December 2012. Net reduction in wireline subscriber base was 0.08 million. The share of urban subscribers has increased from 77.34% to 77.43% where as share of rural subscribers has declined from 22.66% to 22.57%.
