(20 February 2009 8:00 pm)

MUMBAI: A total of 15.26 million telephone connections, wire line as well as wireless, have been added during January 2009 as compared to 10.66 million connections added in December 2008.

The total number of telephone connections reaches 400.05 million at the end of January 2009 as compared to 384.79 million in December 2008. With this growth, the overall tele-density has reached 34.50 per cent at the end of January 2009 as against 33.23 per cent in December 2008.

The wireless connections that include GSM, CDMA and WLL, which were positioned at 362.30 million at the end of January 2009, saw 15.41 million wireless subscribers as against 10.81 million wireless subscribers in December 2008.

The wireline division has seen a drop by 0.15 million, from 37.90 million subscribers in December 2008 to a low of 37.75 million in the month of January 2009.

The broadband connection has also shot up from 5.45 million in December 2008 to 5.65 million in January 2009.