Telephone connections down to 1173.76 million at December 2020 end

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) last week released the monthly telecom scenario for November 2020 and December 2020 which highlights that the number of telephone connections rose from 1171.2 million in October 2020 to 1175.22 million in November 2020 before settling down at 1173.76 million in December 2020.

The reduction in telephone connections came at the expense wireless phones in rural areas primarily. Public and private telephones both took a hit during December 2020 seeing a decrease of less than 1 million each. The tele-density decreased from 86.55 percent in November 2020 to 86.37 percent in December 2020.

Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka accounted for the top five circles with 150.87%, 129.41%, 121.94%, 105.63%, and 103.97% teledensity respectively in December 2020 whereas Delhi, Kolkata, and Mumbai were the top three metro cities with 273.26%, 161.7%, and 148.71% teledensity respectively in December 2020.

Uttar Pradesh East saw the maximum rise in total telephone connections followed by Maharashtra and Bihar whereas Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, and Mumbai recorded a fall in telephone connections.

Wireless segment had a share of 98.29% in total connections at December 2020 end whereas the share of wireline telephones stood at 1.71%. The share of public sector in telephones was 11.25% against 88.75% of the private sector in telephones.

The wired broadband subscriber in India as of 30th September 2020 stood at 21.12 million whereas narrowband wired subscribers in India stood at 3.24 million. The total wired internet subscriber base stood at 24.36 million at the end of September 2020.