The expansion of the telecom sector was accelerated with an increase of 7.56 million in the number of telecom subscribers during the month of July 2007. As a result, the total number of telephones in the country is more than 232.77 million, as compared to 158.05 during July 2006, i.e., a growth of 47% during August 2006 – July 2007.
The GSM segment has shown an increase of 5.75 million during the month of July 2007, the CDMA segment of 1.92 million while the fixed segment has decreased by 0.11 million.
The overall teledensity improved further to 20.50% in July 2007 as compared to 14.10% as on July 31, 2006.
In the GSM segment, Tamilnadu telecom circle added more than 5.6 lakh subscribers during July 2007.
In the CDMA segment, Delhi added more than 2.08 lakh subscribers during the period.
Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh (E) and Maharashtra telecom circles have added more than 6 lakh subscribers each.
The growth of broadband connections improved further and at the end of June 2007, about 2.46 million broadband connections were provided and coverage of broadband connectivity by public sector service providers has reached 1039 cities. Further, the total number of existing ISP licencees is 373.
Under Bharat Nirman Programme, of the 66,822 villages remaining to be covered on November 2004, a total of 48704 villages have been provided with VPTs till June 2007. The remaining 18118 villages having more than 100 population and not lying in thick forest area etc. are to be covered by November 2007.
SRK/ska
(Release ID :30217)