TRAI Report: Teledensity Reaches Double Digit, Broadband Lags Behind

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has released the performance indicators for the quarter ending September 30, 2005:
Teledensity:
The tele-density at the end of quarter ending September 2005 has reached 10.36 as compared to 9.61 at the end of June 2005, thus registering a growth of 8 per cent. The overall growth for the year (September 2004 to September 2005) was 28.03 %.
Internet and Broadband Growth:
1) The Internet subscriber base has crossed the Broadband Policy 2004 target of 6.0 million, which is 3 months before the target date by reaching 6.1 million during the quarter ending September 2005 in comparison to 5.9 million at the end of quarter ending June 2005. Out of 6.1 million the share of PSU operators was 3.5 million and that of private operators was 2.6 million. The growth of this segment during the year was of the order of about 15 per cent. (Editor: We don’t understand this part. I believe it’s broadband subscriber base with speed below 256 kbps. According to IAMAI, the total net users in India is 38.5 million)
2) The number of broadband subscribers (with a download speed of 256 Kbps or more) increased from 396,000 to 610,000 during the quarter ending September, 2005 registering a growth of about 54 per cent during the quarter. But this growth is not enough to meet the policy target of 3 million by 2005. Out of 6.1 lakhs the share of PSU operators was 2.6 lakhs and that of private operators was 3.5 lakhs.
3) Average minutes of use per month per Internet subscriber was of the order of 315 minutes and the ARPU/month for Internet service was of the order of Rs. 190.
Click here to read the full TRAI release (PDF)

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