Telephone subscribers increase by 2.24 percent as wireless subscribers increased by 2.29 percent in March: TRAI

The number of telephone subscribers in India rose from 1,179.83 million at the end of February to 1,206.22 million at the end of March, a monthly growth rate of 2.24 percent, data released by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said on 23 May.[caption id="attachment_4306557" align="alignleft" width="380"] Telecom sector. Representational image. Pixabay[/caption]The urban subscription increased from 669.63 million at the end of February to 681.61 million at the end of March 2018 and the rural subscription also went up from 510.20 million to 524.61 million during the same period.The overall teledensity in India increased from 90.89 at the end of February 2018 to 92.84 at the end of March 2018.Total wireless subscribers (GSM, CDMA & LTE) increased from 1,156.87 million at the end of February to 1,183.41 million at the end of March, thereby registering a monthly growth rate of 2.29 percent.The wireless teledensity in India increased from 89.12 to 91.09.Wireline subscribers further declined from 22.97 million at the end of February to 22.81 million at the end of March. The net decline in the wireline subscriber base was 0.15 million with a monthly decline rate of 0.67 percent.During March, a total of 19.67 million requests were received for mobile number portability (MNP). With this, the cumulative MNP requests increased from 351.16 million at the end of February to 370.83 million at the end of March, since the implementation of MNP.