Wednesday, July 28, 2004
India sees 40% jump in phone lines during 2003-04
Indo-Asian News Service New Delhi, July 28
India's rapidly growing telecom market witnessed a record 40 per cent growth in phone connections in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2004, mainly on the back of a sharp jump in the mobile users base.
The number of phone connections at the end of fiscal 2003-04 rose to 76.5 million, said the Government's annual report on the telecom industry issued on Wednesday.
This comprised 46.48 million fixed lines and cellular connections provided by state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL), and 30 million by the private sector, it added.
During 2003-04, 21.92 million new telephone connections were provided. The telephone density, which was 5.11 per cent as on March 31, 2003, has increased to 7.02 per cent at the end of the last fiscal year.
"The two important features of this phenomenal growth in the telecom sector are increasing share of mobile phones and higher contribution of private sector in the incremental growth," said the statement.
"The users preference in favour of mobile phones against fixed phones continued and, as a result, mobile phones grew by about 160 per cent while fixed phones grew by three per cent during the year."
The share of mobile phones in the total phone connections has increased from 23.77 per cent as on March 31, 2003 to more than 44 per cent in the last fiscal year.
The share of private sector in the growth of telecom sector has also increased from 21 per cent in the fiscal year 2002-03 to 39 per cent in the year ended March 31, 2004.
Out of 607,491 villages in the country, 522,347 villages have been provided with phone connections as on March 31,2004.
© HT Media Ltd. 2004.