India second only to China having added 10.16 million mobile users in March: TRAI

In February, operators had added 8.53 million wireless subscribers in the world's fastest-growing wireless market but surpassed all stipulated expectations to amass record subscriptions in March, propelling India past the US in terms of subscribers. The data compiled by the International Association for the Wireless Telecommunications Industry confirms that India now has higher number of cell-phone users than the US.

TRAI said there were 261.1 million wireless users in India at the end of March 2008, a figure up by 58 percent from last year.

The United States is estimated to have 257.9 million wireless users, according to the International Association for the Wireless Telecommunications Industry website.

Top mobile operator Bharti Airtel led the charge, signing up 2.31 million new customers in March followed by Reliance Communications which added 1.62 million new connections. Unlisted Vodafone Essar, controlled by Britain's Vodafone Plc, added 1.57 million customers.

Total wireless subscribers rose by almost 96 million in the fiscal year at the end of March, but fixed-line users dropped by 1.33 million to 39.42 million.

Total fixed-line and wireless subscribers rose 46 percent from a year earlier to 300.5 million at the end of March, the regulator said.

The telecom industry in India has a market potential much beyond the 10 million monthly additions.

T.V. Ramachandran, director general of Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) which represents GSM players like Bharti, Vodafone, Idea and Aircel said, "We predicted the magic figure of 10 million monthly growths. This was anticipated."

"India will witness a growth rate of 11-12 million in mobile subscriber base over the coming months. The rural discount program started by the mobile telecom industry would be a trigger for that," he added.

The Association of Unified Service Providers of India (AUSPI) also affirmed that the monthly addition in mobile subscriber numbers might cross the current high within the next two months. AUSPI secretary general S.C. Khanna said, "We are expecting to meet the target of 500 million phone connections much before the scheduled date of 2010."

Khanna also stated that rural telephony would be the new thrust area which will fuel the increase in the number of subscribers.

Also, coming months' statistics will determine the progress since during festivals like Diwali, numbers tend to go up. According to industry analysts the number of days in a month also decides the monthly subscriber addition. Like March with 31 days would sell more phone connections than April with 30 days or February with 28 or 29 days.

The tele-density increased to 26.22 percent in March against 25.31 percent from February 2008. In the wire-line segment, the subscriber base moved up to 39.42 million in March from February's 39.18 million. Total broadband subscribers base has reached 3.90 million. All these combined together make the total number of telephone connections in India is at 300.51 million.

As for reaching the number one spot in mobile telephony subscriber numbers it may still be a long way to go as last month TRAI said that China had 540.5 million subscribers as of February this year.