Rural Indians have picked up around 3 million mobile phone SIMs in June 2013 benefitting telecom operators such as Airtel, Idea Cellular, Reliance Communications, Aircel, Vodafone, Uninor, Videocon, etc.
TRAI’s latest mobile subscriber base data shows significant increase in rural mobile users.
The wireless subscription in rural areas increased from 348.19 million in May 213 to 351.10 million in June 2013. Rural teledensity has increased from 40.83 to 41.14.
Wireless subscription in urban areas increased from 522.01 million in May 2013 to 522.27 million in June 2013. Urban wireless teledensity has decreased from 139.32 to 139.16.
TRAI said total wireless subscriber base increased from 870.20 million in May 2013 to 873.36 million in June 2013, registering a monthly growth of 0.36 percent.
The share of urban wireless subscribers has decreased from 59.99 percent to 59.80 percent where as share of rural wireless subscribers has increased from 40.01 percent to 40.20 percent. The overall wireless teledensity in India has reached 71.08 from 70.90 of previous month.
The number of telephone subscribers in India increased to 903.09 million in June, 2013 from 900.05 million in May 2013, showing a monthly growth of 0.34 percent. The share of urban subscribers has decreased to 60.40 percent from 60.59 percent whereas share of rural subscribers has increased from 39.41 percent to 39.60 percent in June 2013.
With this, the overall teledensity in India increased to 73.50 in June, 2013 from 73.33 of the previous month. Subscription in the urban areas increased from 545.30 million in May, 2013 to 545.48 million in June, 2013. Subscription in rural areas increased from 354.75 million to 357.61 million during the same period.
The monthly growth rate of urban and rural subscription is 0.03 percent and 0.81 percent respectively. The overall urban teledensity has decreased from 145.54 to 145.35 and rural teledensity increased from 41.60 to 41.90, TRAI said.
