India now has more than 200 million telephone subscribers

India has crossed a major milestone with as many as 206.8 million telephone subscribers as of March 31. The number has grown dramatically in the last year with the subscriber base growing by around 47%.

Compared to last year, mobile subscriber base has grown phenomenally while the fixed line subscribers dropped in number.

India saw an addition of 66.5 million telephone connections in the year to March 31 as per the data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

The country has some of the lowest telecom charges in the world and low cost of owning a mobile phone has resulted in massive boom in this segment.

This has resulted in mobile phone making companies establishing manufacturing units in India as they aim to sell their products at competitive prices. Nokia and Motorola are already selling locally manufactured phones in the market.

The boom also saw the entry of Vodafone in the market as they are currently in the process of acquiring Hutch. TRAI’s report added that the country now has 18.31 telephone lines per 100 people at the end of March. This is much better compared to last year when we had 12.80 telephone lines per 100 people.