Telecom operators add 7.79 million mobile users in October

NEW DELHI: Telecom operators added 7.79 million mobile subscribers in October 2011, taking the total number of telephone users in the country to 914.59 million, telecom regulator said on Thursday.

According to the data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India ( Trai), mobile subscriber base increased to 881.4 million by October-end from 873.61 million in the preceding month, registering a growth of 0.89%. With this, the overall teledensity (telephones per 100 people) in India reached 76.03%.

However, the number of active mobile subscribers, according to the visitor location register ( VLR) data, during the month of was 626.18 million.

VLR numbers provide details on active customers at any given point of time, excluding switched-off and out-of-the-coverage area customers.

The growth in the wireless category was led by Uninor, which added 2.66 million new users, taking its subscriber base to 32.31 million by the end of October 2011.