The total number of telecom connections — both wired and wireless — in India crossed one billion mark in May, data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said on Saturday.

The total number of telecom subscription stood at 1,002.05 million at the end of May, out of which 975.78 million were wireless connections and 26.27 were wireline.

“The number of telephone subscribers in India increased from 999.71 million at the end of April 2015 to 1,002.05 million at the end of May 2015, thereby showing a monthly growth rate of 0.23 percent,” the TRAI statement said.

The overall tele-density in India increased from 79.56 at the end of April to 79.67 at the end of May.

Total wireless subscriber base increased from 973.35 million at the end of April to 975.78 million at the end of May, thereby registering a monthly growth rate of 0.25 percent.

Wireline subscriber base however declined from 26.36 million at the end of April to 26.27 million at the end of May.

Net reduction in the wireline subscriber base was 0.10 million at the monthly decline rate of 0.36 percent.

In the month of May, a total of 3.24 million subscribers submitted their requests for mobile number portability (MNP). With this, the cumulative MNP requests increased from 157.01 million at the end of April to 160.25 million at the end of May.

The total number of broadband subscribers increased from 100.76 million at the end of April to 104.96 million at the end of May with monthly growth rate of 4.17 percent.

IANS