Net subscriber base up to 45 lakh

NEW DELHI

The Internet subscriber base in India has gone up by 10 percent over the previous quarter to touch 45 lakh during the quarter ended March 2004. Internet subscribers grew 25 percent during the entire year, according to released recently Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) data. The government-owned BSNL is at the top of the list of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) with 11.28 lakh users followed by Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (MTNL) with 7.69 lakh subscribers.

During the quarter, Internet telephony recorded a usage of 2.71 crore minutes against 2.01 crore minutes during the previous quarter, a growth of 35 percent.

Average minutes of use per month per Internet subscriber was to the tune of 400 minutes and average revenue per month for Internet services was estimated to be around Rs 406.

India’s telecom subscriber base grew by 8.5 percent to touch 7.67 crore for the quarter ended March 2004 compared to the previous quarter. While subscribers of fixed services increased marginally to 4.28 crore in the quarter from 4.2 crore in the previous quarter, the mobile services user base jumped to 3.36 crore from 2.84 crore. The number of mobile users in the country has exceeded the fixed subscribers in major circles such as Mumbai, Delhi, Chandigarh, Punjab and Chennai.

According to Trai, mobile tariffs continued to show a downward trend and declined by 23 percent during the period. ARPU for cellular users fell by five percent to Rs 436 while ARPU for WLL declined to Rs 383 per month from Rs 460. Minutes of Usage (MOU) were up 45 per cent over the same quarter in 2003.