The number of telephone subscribers in India fell to 935.18 million in October, down 2.52 percent from 937.70 million at the end of September, according to figures from the Telecom Regularity Authority of India (Trai). The overall teledensity slipped to 76.75 from 77.04 a month earlier. The mobile subscriber base fell to 904.23 from 906.62 million in the previous month, down by 2.39 percent, due to large scale disconnections by some operators. Private operators hold 88.36 percent of the mobile market share (based on subscriber base) whereas state-owned operators BSNL and MTNL hold A 11.64 percent share of the market. Meanwhile, the fixed-line subscriber base declined from 31.08 million in September to 30.95 million in October. BSNL and MTNL hold a share of 79.93 percent of the fixed-line market. Furthermore, the broadband subscriber base increased to 14.81 from 14.68 million a month earlier. The top five ISPs in terms of market share (based on subscriber base) are: BSNL (9.69 million), Bharti Airtel (1.39 million), MTNL (1.08 million), Hathway (0.37 million), and Tikona (0.30 million).
