Over 9 million phone connections added in July

NEW DELHI: More than nine million phone connections were added last month, taking the number of phone users in the country to some 333.84 million, the telecom watchdog said on Monday.

According to a release issued by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), the overall tele-density in the country was 29.08 percent at the end of July, as against 28.33 percent a month before.

It said the total wireless subscriber base including GSM, CDMA and cordless users stood at 296.08 million at the end of July.

Altogether 9.22 million wireless subscribers were added during the month, as against 8.94 million subscribers added in June 2008, the watchdog added.

"In the wireline segment, the subscriber base has slightly decreased to 38.76 million in July 2008 as against 38.92 million subscribers in June 2008," the release stated.

The total broadband subscriber base was 4.57 million by July-end, as compared to 4.38 million at the end of the previous month.