India’s mobile phone customer base rose 0.42 percent, or a net 3.8 million, in July to 918.72 million, data released by the sector regulator showed on Wednesday.
By comparison, China, the world’s biggest mobile phone market, reported a 0.28 percent monthly increase in the number of mobile subscribers to about 1.27 billion as of end-July.
NOTE: Active mobile subscribers in July were 797.06 million, or about 86.76 percent.
Mobile connections per 100 people, known as tele-density, was 73.78 as of July. Mobile tele-density in urban areas was 140.96, compared with 43.90 in rural areas.
In July, 2.86 million mobile subscribers opted to change their service providers through mobile number portability. Mobile number portability is currently allowed only within a service zone. India is divided into 22 telecommunications service zones.
Total broadband connections were 70.81 million at end-July. There were 55.77 million broadband users through mobile phones and dongles, while 15.04 million were using broadband through wirelines. Internet connections with a minimum download speed of 512 Kbps are considered as broadband in India.
The number of fixed-phone line subscribers fell to 27.68 million at end-July from 28.03 million at the end of June.
Including fixed-phone lines, India had 946.40 million phone users as of July 31, or a total tele-density of 76.