Indian telecom subscriber base crossed the 104-crore mark with the addition of 70 lakh new consumers in the month of January 2016.
"The number of telephone subscribers in India increased from 103.64 crore at the end of Dec-15 to 104.32 crore at the end of Jan-16, thereby showing a monthly growth rate of 0.66%," the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (TRAI) User Subcription report stated.
It also revealed that rural areas (0.85 percent) grew faster in terms of new telephone subscription compared to urban regions (0.53%) during December 2015 and January 2016.
As per the TRAI statistics, urban subscription increased from 60.06 crore in December 2015 to 60.385 crore at the end of January 2016, whereas rural subscription rose from 43.57 crore to 43.94 crore during the same period.
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Mobile phone subscription also witnessed a healthy growth and reached 101.4 crore mark. Airtel leads the race as it was able to attract around 25 lakh new users to its fold. It is followed by Idea (12.5 lakh) and Vodafone (11.12 lakh).
State-owned BSNL added 9.35 lakh new consumers and succeeded in retaining the fourth position.
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Broadband connectivity too witnessed positive growth in the country. The number of broadband subscribers increased from 13.65 crore at the end of December 2015 to 14.01 crore at the end of January 2016 with a monthly growth rate of 2.62%.
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Once again Bharti Airtel led the pack with a subscriber base of 3.27 crore users. It is followed by Vodafone (2.62 crore), Idea Cellular (2.2 crore), BSNL (2.01 crore) and Reliance Communications (1.55 crore).
