Telcos add 13.35 nm mobile users in May: TRAI

NEW DELHI: Telecom operators added 13.35 million mobile subscribers in May 2011, taking the total number of telephone users in the country to 874.68 million, the sectoral regulator said on Thursday. According to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) data, mobile subscriber base increased to 840.28 million at the end of May from 826.93 million in April, registering a growth of 1.61%.

With this, the overall teledensity (telephones per 100 people ) in India reached 70.23%. However, the number of active mobile subscribers, according to the visitor location register (VLR) data, during May was only 588.13 million. VLR numbers provide details on active customers at any given point of time, excluding switched-off and out-of- coverage-area customers. According to Trai data, mobile number portability (MNP) requests jumped nearly 24% to 105.70 lakh subscribers in May, from 85.41 lakh in April. In all, 105.70 lakh subscribers had submitted MNP requests till May.