TRAI has
released the “Indian Telecom Services Performance Indicator
Report” for the Quarter
ending December 2012. This Report provides a broad
perspective of the Telecom Services and presents the key parameters and growth
trends for the Telecom Services as well as Cable TV, DTH & Radio
Broadcasting services in India for the period covering October to December
2012, and is compiled on the basis of information furnished by the Service
Providers.
The number of telephone subscribers in India
declined from 937.70 million at the end of Sep-12 to 895.51 million at the end
of Dec-12, registering a negative growth of 4.50% over the previous quarter
sep-12. This reflects year-on-year (Y-O-Y) negative growth of 3.35% over the
same quarter of last year. The overall
Tele-density in India has declined from 77.04 as on September 30th, 2012 to
73.34 as on December 31st, 2012.
Trends
in Telephone subscribers and Teledensity in India
Subscription in Urban Areas decreased from
595.69 million at the end of Sep-12 to 556.96 million at the end of Dec-12, and
Urban Teledensity declined from 161.13 to 149.90. Rural subscription decreased
from 342.01 million to 338.54 million, and Rural Teledensity also declined from
40.36 to 39.85. Share of subscription in Rural areas out of total subscription
increased from 36.47% at the end of Sep-12 to 37.80% at the end of Dec-12.
Composition of Telephone Subscribers
With a decline of 41.90 million subscribers
during the quarter, total wireless (GSM+CDMA) subscriber base registered a
negative growth of 4.62% over the previous quarter and subscriber base declined
from 906.62 million at the end of Sep-12 to 864.72 million at the end of
Dec-12. The
year-on-year (Y-O-Y) negative growth rate of Wireless subscribers for Dec-12 is
3.26%. Wireless Teledensity decreased from 74.49 at the end of Sep-12 to 70.82
at the end of Dec-12.
Wireline
subscriber base further declined from 31.08 million at the end of Sep-12 to
30.79 million at the end of Dec-12, bringing down the wireline
Teledensity from 2.55 at the end of Sep-12 to 2.52 at the end of Dec-12.
Internet subscribers increased from 24.01
million at the end of Sep-12 to 25.33 million at the end of Dec-12, registering
a quarterly growth rate of 5.49%. Top 10 ISPs together hold 95.42% of the total
Internet subscriber base.
Number of Broadband subscribers increased
from 14.68 million at the end of Sep-12 to 14.98 million at the end of Dec-12,
registering a quarterly growth of 2.02% and Y-O-Y growth of 12.23%.
Share of Broadband subscription in total
Internet subscription decreased from 61.16% at the end of Sep-12 to 59.15% at
the end of Dec-12. 84.82% of the
Broadband subscribers are using Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) technology.
