While the urban telecom market in India is saturating fast, rural telecom penetration has increased considerably. It grew from 14.93 per cent in March 2009 to 24.29 per cent in March 2010.
The overall telecom subscriber base increased by 45 per cent from 429.72 million as of March 2009 to 621.28 million at the end of March 2010. The share of rural in the total subscriber base increased from 28 per cent in March 2009 to 32.3 per cent in March 2010. Meanwhile, the share of urban subscribers came down from 71.5 per cent to 67.67 per cent.
The total rural telecom subscriber base stood at 200.81 million as of March 2010, marking a 64 per cent increase over March 2009. The growth in rural telecom subscribers is dominated by the wireless segment. As of March 2010, the total rural mobile subscribers stood at 190.88 million, constituting 95 per cent of the total rural subscriber base.
Circle-wise, Delhi had the highest urban teledensity at 172.49 per cent and Himachal Pradesh had the highest rural teledensity at 52.53 per cent. Bharti Airtel accounted for the maximum rural penetration with 48.09 million rural subscribers, followed by Vodafone Essar with 36.79 million.
|
Rural vs urban teledensity (as of March 2010) (%) |
||
|
Quarter ended |
Rural teledensity |
Urban teledensity |
|
Mar-09 |
15 |
Mar-00 |
|
Jun-09 |
17 |
95 |
|
Sep-09 |
18 |
103 |
|
Dec-09 |
21 |
111 |
|
Mar-10 |
24 |
120 |
|
Rural vs urban subscribers (as of March 2010) (million) |
||
|
Quarter ended |
Rural subscribers |
Urban subscribers |
|
Mar-09 |
122 |
308 |
|
Jun-09 |
136 |
329 |
|
Sep-09 |
152 |
357 |
|
Dec-09 |
175 |
388 |
|
Mar-10 |
201 |
420 |
|
Circle-wise rural vs urban mobile teledensity (as of March 2010) (%) |
||||
|
Circle |
Rural mobile |
Total rural |
Urban mobile |
Total urban |
|
|
teledensity |
teledensity |
teledensity |
teledensity |
|
Andhra Pradesh |
23 |
24 |
136 |
57 |
|
|
18 |
18 |
92 |
30 |
|
|
14 |
15 |
123 |
30 |
|
|
– |
– |
– |
172 |
|
|
32 |
34 |
89 |
58 |
|
Haryana |
38 |
39 |
94 |
60 |
|
Himachal Pradesh |
48 |
53 |
288 |
79 |
|
Jammu & Kashmir |
26 |
27 |
107 |
50 |
|
Karnataka |
23 |
24 |
132 |
68 |
|
Kerala |
36 |
45 |
172 |
80 |
|
Madhya Pradesh |
15 |
15 |
86 |
35 |
|
|
31 |
32 |
99 |
67 |
|
Northeast |
24 |
25 |
92 |
43 |
|
Orissa |
20 |
21 |
128 |
39 |
|
|
39 |
42 |
115 |
75 |
|
Rajasthan |
30 |
31 |
115 |
53 |
|
Tamil Nadu (including Chennai) |
36 |
38 |
115 |
84 |
|
Uttar Pradesh (East and West) |
18 |
18 |
100 |
37 |
|
|
24 |
24 |
103 |
49 |
|
All |
23 |
24 |
112 |
53 |
|
Operator-wise rural subscribers as of March 2010 (million) |
|||
|
Operator |
Rural mobile subscribers |
Rural wireline subscribers |
Total rural subscribers |
|
Bharti Airtel |
48 |
– |
48 |
|
Vodafone Essar |
37 |
– |
37 |
|
Idea Cellular |
30 |
– |
30 |
|
BSNL |
25 |
10 |
35 |
|
RCOM |
21.25 |
– |
21 |
|
Aircel |
14 |
– |
14 |
|
TTSL |
13 |
0 |
14 |
|
Unitech |
1 |
– |
1 |
|
SSTL |
0.54 |
0 |
1 |
|
HFCL |
0.001 |
– |
0 |
|
Loop |
– |
– |
– |
|
S Tel |
0.27 |
– |
0 |
|
MTNL |
– |
– |
– |
|
Videocon Telecom |
– |
– |
– |
|
Etisalat DB |
– |
– |
– |
|
Total |
190.88 |
10 |
201 |