New Delhi, May 29 (IANS) The number of total telephone subscribers in India increased from 1,200.80 million at the end of March to 1,203.84 million in April, a monthly growth rate of 0.25 per cent, the government’s telecom subscription data showed on Thursday.

Urban telephone subscription increased from 666.11 million at the end of March to 667.19 million at the end of April, and the rural subscription also increased from 534.69 million to 536.65 million during the same period.

The monthly growth rates of urban and rural telephone subscription were 0.16 per cent and 0.37 per cent, respectively, during April, said the Ministry of Communications.

Total wireless (mobile+5G FWA) subscribers increased from 1,163.76 million to 1,166.43 million in April, registering a monthly growth rate of 0.23 per cent.

According to the data, total wireless subscription in urban areas increased from 632.57 million to 633.29 million while subscription in rural areas increased from 531.18 million to 533.14 million during the same period.

The monthly growth rate of urban and rural wireless subscriptions was 0.11 per cent and 0.37 per cent, respectively.

The overall tele-density increased from 85.04 per cent at the end of March to 85.19 per cent at the end of April.

The urban tele-density increased from 131.45 per cent at the end of March to 131.46 per cent at the end of April and rural tele-density also increased from 59.06 per cent to 59.26 per cent during the same period.

“As on April 30, the private access service providers held 92.08 per cent market share of the wireless (mobile) subscribers, whereas BSNL and MTNL, the two PSU access service providers, had a market share of only 7.92 per cent,” the data showed.

Bharti Airtel Limited has the highest number of machine-to-machine (M2M) cellular mobile connections of 37.28 million with a market share of 53.35 per cent, followed by Vodafone idea Limited.

In April, 13.48 million subscribers submitted their requests for mobile number portability (MNP).

–IANS

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