Telephone subscriber growth up by 0.36 percent in April, says Trai

The number of telephone subscribers in India increased from 1,194.58 million at the end of March 2017 to 1,198.89 million at the end of April 2017, thereby showing a monthly growth rate of 0.36 percent, data released by the sector regulator showed here on Tuesday. The urban subscription increased from 692.97 million at the end of March 2017 to 695.99 million at the end of April 2017, and the Rural subscription increased from 501.61 million to 502.90 million during the same period, the **Telecom Regulatory Authority of India** (TRAI) said. The overall teledensity in India increased from 92.98 at the end of March to 93.23 at the end of April. The urban teledensity increased from 171.80 to 172.28 during the same period. The rural teledensity also increased from 56.91 at the end of March to 57.02 at the end of April. Data showed total wireless subscribers (GSM, CDMA and LTE) increased from 1,170.18 million at the end of March to 1,174.60 million at the end of April, registering a monthly growth rate of 0.38 percent. Wireline subscribers declined from 24.40 million at the end of March to 24.30 million at the end of April. The net decline in the wireline subscriber base was 0.10 million with a monthly decline rate of 0.42 per cent. During the month of April, a total of 4.96 million requests were received for **mobile number portability** (MNP). With this, the cumulative MNP requests increased from 272.76 million at the end of March to 277.72 million at the end of April, since the implementation of MNP.