DOT: Broadband subscribers touches 463.65 million at August-end

According to official data by the Department of Telecom (DoT), the number of broadband subscribers was 463.65 million at the end of August'18 as compared to 460.24 million in July'18, showing an increase of 0.74 percent.

While the number of Internet subscribers (both broadband and narrowband put together) which was 422.18 million at the end of March 2017 increased to 512.27 million by the end of June'18.

It said the number of subscribers accessing the internet via wireless phones was 491.10 million at the end of June'18. The number of wired Internet subscribers was 21.17 million at the end of June'18.

DOT said the total number of telephones rose to 1,189.17 million, up 9.73 million over the previous month. Of this, wireline phone connections remained almost flat, while the wireless connections climbed 0.84 percent month-on-month to almost 1,167 million.

"Maximum rise in total telephone connections was recorded in Mumbai (19,35,854) followed by Bihar (10,26,007) and Madhya Pradesh (9,61,251). However, Jammu & Kashmir recorded a fall in telephone connections over the previous month, with a decrease of 1,72,445," it said.

The share of the wireless segment in total connections stood at 98.13 percent by the August-end, and wireline telephones at 1.87 percent.

The overall teledensity at the end of August'18 was 91.11 percent. Rural and urban teledensity was 58.57 percent and 160.98 percent respectively.

Data also pointed that among the Service areas, Himachal Pradesh (144.70 percent) has the highest teledensity followed by Punjab (126.15 percent), Kerala (124.70 percent), Tamil Nadu (116.38 percent) and Karnataka (110.51 percent). Among the three metros, Delhi Service Area tops in teledensity with 234.88percent, followed by Kolkata (168.94 percent) and Mumbai (163.28 percent).