Economic Times

India buzzing with 200 million mobile users

22 September 2007

New Delhi: The country’s wireless market, the fastest growing in the world, crossed another milestone, with the subscriber base crossing the 200-million mark in August. The country added 8.31 million wireless subscribers, including GSM, CDMA and wireless in local loop (fixed) or WLL (F), in August to touch 201.29 million users, according to figures released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).

India has thus met its 200-million mobile subscriber target four months ahead of schedule — the government had set the target for 2007-end — and just over a year after crossing the 100-million mark in May 2006. The target of 250 million phones in total (mobile plus fixed) is also close in sight. At the end of August, India had 241.02 million telephone subscribers, against 232.87 million at the end of July. The country’s teledensity improved slightly to 21.20% by August-end, against 20.52% by July-end, Trai data shows.

Total broadband connections in the country increased by 0.09 million in August to reach 2.56 million.

*****