Gujarat cities have fewer phones than Bihar towns

It is unbelievable, but true. Gujarat’s teledensity — i.e. the number of phone connections for every 100 people — in urban areas is just 85.04. In contrast, the urban teledensity of underdeveloped states such as Rajasthan, Orissa and Bihar is over 100.

This has been revealed by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) report on the Indian Telecom Services performance indicators as in September 2009. Interestingly, Himachal Pradesh is ahead of all other states in urban teledensity.

The report, which was released last week, takes into account both mobile and landline phone connections subscribed by the people in different areas of the country.

Even the national average urban teledensity is 102.79, which is higher than that of Gujarat. However, the state’s overall teledensity is 50.52.

As per data available in September 2009, Gujarat ranks eighth in the country in total teledensity.

The Delhi telecom circle is first with 154.99 followed by Tamil Nadu with 72.02 and Kerala 68.98.