2005 – Eventful year for Indian telephony

The year 2005 has been an eventful one for the Indian telecommunications sector. Continuing its upward trend, this sector has seen the addition of a whopping 31.97 million users during 2005, taking the total subscriber base to 124.85 million. This represents a growth of 34.42 per cent when compared to the total subscriber base of 92.88 million during 2004.

The Indian telecom sector set another record last year when tele-density touched 11.43 as against 8.62 at the end of 2004. In December 2005, a record number of 4.92 million subscribers were added as against 3.79 million in November 2005, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said.

During the year under review, a total of 4.06 million users had registered for fixed line services. Out of this, 0.46 million were added in December 2005, predominantly in the WLL (F) segment. Consequently, the total fixed line subscriber figure touched 48.93 million, a growth of nine per cent over 2004.

Mobile telephony also saw accelerated growth during 2005. With 27.91 million new subscribers added to the mobile services (GSM and CDMA), the total subscriber base grew by 58.13 per cent year-on-year to 75.92 million in 2005. Of the 27.91-million new users, 4.46 million were added in December 2005 as against 3.51 million in the previous month. The mobile additions consist of 3.19 million GSM and 1.27 million CDMA customers.

The 60-lakh target set for the Internet subscriber base has been achieved when the user base touched 61.25 lakh at the end of September 2005 itself as against 54.5 lakh at the end of December 2004. However, the performance on the broadband front was dismal. Falling short of the target of 30 lakh connections by the end of December 2005 as enunciated in the Broadband Policy-2004, the number of broadband connections crossed only 8.35 lakh by the end 2005.

Continued efforts of the government in making broadband affordable have started yielding results. The minimum monthly tariff for broadband connection has declined to Rs 199 with free download of up to 400 MB. Also, the rate for download of one MB has been slashed to Re 1 from Rs 4 per MB a year ago. TRAI said though the growth of broadband was not substantial because of supply constraints, the minimum tariff for a broadband connection was the lowest in India when compared to that in some of the developed countries. The minimum monthly tariff for broadband connection in India is around $5 while it is $40 in the US, $25 in South Korea and $20 in Japan, TRAI stated.

BSNL’s landmark achievements

BSNL, India’s largest telecom service provider, has broken all the past records by providing 10 lakh cellular connections in December 2005 alone, thereby adding an unprecedented number of customers to its cellular subscriber base. BSNL has achieved the landmark of providing more than 14 million mobile cellular connections all over the country.

In South Zone, BSNL provided more than 4.77 lakh connections. Out of this, more than 2 lakh connections were provided in the state of Kerala, 1.25 lakh connections in the state of Tamil Nadu, and over 75 thousand connections each in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. The waiting list for cellular connections in the South Zone has been cleared and now, connections are available ‘On Demand’.

In the North Zone also, 2.58 lakh connections were provided during December 2005. More than 1.2 lakh connections have been provided in the state of Uttar Pradesh and approximately one lakh connections in the state of Rajasthan. Now, connections are available ‘On Demand’ in North Zone also. BSNL has 65% of market share in the state of J&K.

In the East Zone, BSNL provided 2.68 lakh connections during December 2005. Of these, over one lakh connections have been provided in the state of West Bengal and 62,000 in the state of Bihar. In the North Eastern states, BSNL has a market share of about 70%. ‘On Demand’ availability of mobile connections in East Zone is expected by the end of January.

Source: BSNL Press Release