India tops 200 million telephone subscribers

India had 206.8 million telephone subscribers as of March 31, up by 47 percent from a year ago. Mobile telephone connections took the dominant share, as fixed line subscribers dropped in number.

India added 66.5 million telephone connections in the year to March 31, in comparison to about 42 million in the previous year, according to data released Monday by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in Delhi.

The boom in the telephony market has been largely fueled by a fierce price war among mobile operators and mobile phone vendors, which helped push down tariffs. Some mobile phone vendors, including Motorola, introduced low-cost models for the Indian market.

The high growth in the country's telephone subscriber numbers has attracted a large number of multinational companies including Nokia and Motorola to set up manufacturing facilities for mobile equipment in India. British mobile services operator Vodafone Group awaiting Indian government approval for its bid to acquire a majority stake in Hutchison Essar, a large Indian mobile services provider.

The total number of wireless subscribers at the end of March was 166 million, up by 68 percent from the previous year, according to TRAI in Delhi. The number of fixed-line telephony subscribers dropped by 1.8 percent during the year to 40.8 million.

As a result of the rapid growth in the subscriber base, India had 18.31 telephone lines per 100 people at the end of March, compared to 12.80 a year earlier.

The next big market for telephony in India is the under-served rural market, according to the industry. The Indian government is subsidizing roll outs by private operators in rural areas under a program called Universal Service Obligation (USO) and has also has encouraged these companies to share infrastructure where possible.