http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=117784

Delhi tops metro list on mobile teledensity

HARSIMRAN SINGH

NEW DELHI, FEB 16:  With one of the highest per-capita income in the
country, Delhi has become the metro with the highest mobile teledensity at
43%. While Mumbai and Chennai have a mobile teledensity of 38.4% and 39.7%,
respectively, Kolkata has the lowest among the metros at 18.4%.

On Thursday, Delhi also became the only city in India to have a 2 million
subscriber base for a single operator. Airtel CEO for Delhi mobile services
K Srinivas said, "Delhi has one of the highest per capita income in the
world. We added more than a million subscribers in the last 3 years making
it a total of 2 million users in Delhi circle, which is growing at 50% per
annum."

After Hutch in Gujarat, and Airtel in Karnataka, Delhi is the first to
achieve this feat. Delhi has more than 5 million GSM subscribers and 1.8
million CDMA subscribers. In contrast, Kolkata has the least at 1.6 million
GSM and 0.7 million CDMA subscribers. The reason is Delhi's per capita
income of Rs 51,664 which is almost thrice the national average of Rs
20,989. Kolkata's per-capita income hovers around Rs 7,000.

But in terms of teledensity (including mobile and fixed line), Chennai is at
the top with a 62.2% teledensity, in contrast to Delhi (60%) and Mumbai
(57.4%). Kolkata again lags behind at 30.6% teledensity. In all the four
metros, the number of mobile phones has overtaken fixed phones by 2-3 times.
Delhi has 2 million and Mumbai 2.4 million fixed phones.

The launch of OneIndia plan may, however, stop the surrender of fixed
phones, if mobile operators do not come out with lower rates. "We are just
waiting for Trai to announce its access deficit charges order. We cannot be
behind in the race. Airtel will match the rates (STD at Re 1) launched by
state telecom operators, after clarity on the ADC front," Mr Srinivas added.

-------------
Anybody have the info for "Goa" for purposes of comparison? It should be
interesting.




Reply via email to