The number of telephone subscribers in India increased from 118.85 crore at the end of February to 119.45 crore at the end of March, thereby showing a monthly growth rate of 0.51 per cent, sector regulator TRAI said in a report on Friday.

Urban subscription increased from 69.21 crore at the end of February to 69.29 crore at March-end, while rural subscription grew from 49.63 crore to 50.16 crore, it said.

The overall teledensity in India increased from 92.59 at February-end to 92.98 at the end of March, TRAI said, adding that urban teledensity declined marginally from 171.86 at February-end to 171.80 at the end of March.

However, the rural teledensity increased from 56.35 at the end of February to 56.91 at March-end. The share of urban subscribers and rural subscribers in total number of telephone subscribers at the end of March was 58.01 per cent and 41.99 per cent, respectively.

“Total wireless subscribers (GSM, CDMA and LTE) increased from 116.42 crore at the end of February to 117.01 crore at the end of March, a monthly growth rate of 0.51 per cent,” TRAI said.

The wireless subscription in urban areas increased from 67.16 crore at the end of February to 67.24 crore at the end of March, and wireless subscription in rural areas increased from 49.25 crore to 49.77 crore, the regulator said.

As on March 31, private access service providers held 91.06 per cent market share of the wireless subscribers whereas BSNL and MTNL, the two public sector access service providers, had a market share of only 8.94 per cent, it added.

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