Indian Telecom Market - Status as on Dec 2006

The Indian telecom market growth is accelarating. please look at the following figures
- 6.48 million Wirless Subscribers added in December 2006.
- Yearly subscribers growth reaches new milestone.
- More than 65 million telephony subscribers added in 2006
The wireless segment added 6.48 million subscribers during
December 2006 as compared to 6.80 million in Nov. 2006. At the end of
December 2006 total wireless (GSM, CDMA and WLL-F) subscribers were
149.50 million.
The wireline subscriber registered a negative growth of 0.08 million
in December 2006 resulting in net addition of 6.40 million subscribers as
compared to 6.75 million during December 2006. The wireline subscriber
base reached 40.43 million at the end of December 2006.
The gross telephony subscribers in country reached 189.93 million
at December 2006 as compared to 183.53 million in November 2006. The
overall tele-density reached 17.16% in December 2006 as compared to
16.60 at the end of November 2006. The tele-density in December 2005
was 11.43 and thus there is steep growth of 50% in tele-density during the
year 2006.
The net addition of wireless and fixed line subscribers in the first
nine months of FY 2006-07 is 49.61 million, which is almost twice as
compared to addition of 26.37 million in the corresponding period of FY
2005-06.


Subscriber Growth in 2006
A comparison of annual additions of subscribers for the previous
two years shows that total additions of subscribers during 2006 is almost
twice the additions in the year 2005 and about thrice that of 2004. There
is an increase of almost 100% in teledensity in two years from 8.62 at the
end of December 2004 to 17.16 at the end of December 2006.



Broadband (> 256 Kbps download) Growth:
Broadband connections have continued growth since beginning of 2006. At
the end of December 2006 total Broadband connections in the country have
reached 2.10 million having addition of 0.1 million during December 2006.
The additions during first nine months of current financial year is 0.75
million as compared to 0.72 millions during the corresponding period in the
previous financial year. The total increase in Broadband subscribers from
January to December 2006 is 1.20 million as compared to addition of 0.85
million during 2005.