 "Roughly 84.26 million subscribers opted for MNP by the end of January 2013: TRAI")
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released figures as part of its telecom subscription data. As on January 31, 2013, the number of telephone subscribers in the country continued to fall – 893.51 million at the end of January 2013 from 895.51 million at the end of December 2012. The share of urban subscribers has decreased to 61.87 percent from 62.20 percent while that of rural subscribers continued to rise. It stood at 38.13 percent in the month of January 2013.
The wireless subscriber base in the country too saw a decrease – 864.72 million in December 2012 to 862.62 million at the end of January 2013. TRAI attributes this decline primarily to the deactivation of inactive SIMs in large numbers by some service providers. Here, the share of urban subscribers decreased from 61.65 percent to 61.31 percent while that of rural subscribers rose from 38.35 percent to 38.69 percent.
By the end of January 2013, approx. 84.26 million sent porting requests (Image credit: Getty Images)
By the end of January 2013, roughly 84.26 million subscribers sent their porting requests to service providers. In MNP Zone-I (Northern & Western India) maximum number of requests came from Rajasthan (7.96 million), followed by Gujarat (7.34 million). In MNP Zone-II (Southern & Eastern), maximum number of requests were received in Karnataka (10.20 million), followed by Andhra Pradesh Service area (7.62 million). In the month of January 2013, total number of subscribers to have submitted their request for MNP was 4.20 million.
The broadband subscription in the country rose from 14.98 million at the end of December 2012 to 15.01 million at the end of January 2013. According to the figures of the report, there are 159 Internet Service Providers (ISPs) offering broadband services in the country, as on January 31, 2013. Out of these, 113 ISPs offered broadband subscription data for the month of January 2013; for the rest of the ISPs, data from previous month was retained (Data from top 10 ISPs, which constitute 93.34 percent of the total subscriber base, have been received for the month of January 2013). As per TRAI’s figures, the top five ISPs in terms of market share (based on subscriber base) are: BSNL (9.93 million), Bharti Airtel (1.39 million), MTNL (1.09 million), Hathway (0.37 million) and You Broadband (0.30 million).
The wireline subscriber base in the country declined from 30.79 million at the end of December 2012 to 30.52 Million at the end of January 2013. As per the TRAI report, the net reduction in wireline subscriber base was 0.27 million. The share of urban subscribers rose from 77.43 percent to 77.54 percent while that of rural subscribers declined from 22.66 percent to 22.57 percent.
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