India to be 2nd largest wireless network: Trai

The country is set to become the second largest wireless network in the world with a subscriber base of over 300 million by April, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India said on Monday.     

"India's wireless subscriber base during the first half of April 2008, will surpass that of the US and will become the second wireless network in the world," the telecom regulator said.

Moreover, the total subscriber base, including wireless and wire-line would also cross 300 million mark in April, it added.

Currently, China is the world's largest wireless network and is adding around 6-7 million subscribers every month.

According to CTIA, a US-based wireless operators association, the current subscriber base of America is 256 million.

The US is adding about 2-3 million subscribers in a month where as India's monthly wireless subscriber addition is highest in the range of 8-9 million a month, Trai said.

Releasing the monthly telecom subscriber base figures Trai said during February, about 8.49 million telephone connections have been added as compared to 8.74 million in January.

The total number of telephone connections reaches 290.11 million at the end of February, as compared to 281.62 million in January.

The overall tele-density is 25.31 per cent at the end of February, against 24.63 per cent in January.

In the wire-line segment, the subscriber base has slightly decreased to 39.18 million in February, against 39.22 million subscribers in January.