The total number of telephone connections in the country has increased to 176.5 million with the addition of more than six million new users in October.
This pushed the overall teledensity in the country to 15.7 per cent in October.
Total number of telephones increased to 176.5 million from 170 million as on September 30, recording a growth rate of 3.8 per cent. Tele-density was 15.1 per cent last month.
Mobile companies, especially GSM-based firms, led much of the growth. The GSM segment added about 4.73 million subscribers, while CDMA segment added over 2 million customers. There was a marginal decline in fixed line segment, with the number of subscribers declining by 80,000.
The Northeast telecom circle recorded the highest growth rate of 9.38 per cent in GSM segment, followed by Madhya Pradesh at 9.22 per cent.
In the CDMA segment, total subscriber base grew 5.2 per cent with a net addition of two million subscribers.
The number of broadband connections at the end of September 2006 stood at over 1.8 million.
Source: ET
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