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Over 164 lakh telephones have been added during April-December of the current year. Of these, in the month of December alone, more than 23 lakh phones were provided. With this addition, the total number of phones has reached a level of 929 lakh, taking the tele-density from 7% in March 2004 to 8.59% at the end of December 2004.
The Mix of Mobile and Fixed Phones
About 87% of the additional phones during the current year are accounted for by the mobile phones. The number of mobile phones (including WLL (M)) as on December 31, 2004 is over 480 lakh. The share of mobile phones in the total number of telephones is shown below.
Private Sector has played a major role by accounting for 77% of the expansion during these nine months. The private sector has so far provided 426.44 lakh phones as on 31st December 2004, which is 46% of the total phones in the country.
Rural Telephony – BSNL is the contributor
However, in the rural areas, only Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has provided Direct Exchange Lines and VPTs. As against 4.73lakh additional telephones provided in rural areas during April-December 2003, BSNL has provided 7.65 lakh telephones during the current year. 3138 VPTs have also been provided by BSNL during the past nine months.
The performance of the telecom sector is briefly given below:
The following decisions were taken during the month of December 2004:
(i) Registration charges for booking of leased lines waived off w.e.f. 01-01-2005.
(ii) BSNL has signed an MoU with SAIL for supply of Steel raw material to BSNL for one-year w.e.f. 1st January 2005.
(iii) International call charges for Bol Anmol prepaid Internet Telephony card were reduced from maximum slab of Rs. 4.50 to 3.00.
(iv) Two ISP licences were issued during the month to M/s Softeng Computers Pvt. Ltd. and M/s Rajdhani Telecom Pvt. Ltd. for All-India and Guwahati operations respectively increasing the number of licences issued till December 31, 2004 to 705.
(v) Two companies, namely, U-Clix Computer (P) Ltd. and Cyber Setu India (P) Ltd. were permitted to offer Internet Telephony during the month.
RM/AMA- 080205 Performance Report
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