New Delhi, Jan. 6: Telecom services will continue to grow at a fast pace in 2004 just as it did in the previous year.

According to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), more than 20 million telephones were added last year. This resulted in achieving the 7-per-cent tele-density goal 15 months ahead of the target set out in the National Telecom Policy 1999.

In its report for December, Trai pointed out that effective telecom rates have come down to less than half of last year for mobile services. Mobile local-call tariff has dipped 5 per cent of the tariff that prevailed in 1995 — becoming one of the lowest in the world.

During 2003, over 20 million new telephone connections were provided, taking the total subscriber base to around 70.5 million. This helped achieve the tele-density target of 7 per 100, which was targeted by March, 2005. The subscriber base for mobile services continued to maintain its growth throughout 2003. During the year, around 17.5 million mobile subscribers were added, bringing the total to 28.20 million against 42.0 million fixed lines.

The report also points that annual growth in mobile phones is more than three times higher than the increase in 2002. The average monthly addition of 1.5 million achieved during 2003 is about 14 times higher compared with the average growth of mobile subscribers in the preceding eight years since 1995, says Trai. (See Chart)

The regulator has highlighted the unprecedented fall in telecom charges. The minimum effective local-call charges in cellular mobile services has declined from Rs 14.51 per minute (for 400 minutes of usage per month) in March 1995 to 77 paise per minute in September 2003.

“This implies that the currently prevalent effective local-call charges of 77 paise per minute is only 5 per cent of what it was in 1995. Moreover, the effective local-call charges for fixed and mobile have converged,” said a Trai official.

There has also been a steep decline in the national long distance charges during the last few years. This has taken place in all distance categories applicable. For instance, as on date, the STD call charge applicable for ‘above 1000 kms distance’ category is only Rs 4.80 per minute as compared with Rs 37.50, which existed prior to 1999 (this was the year in which tariff rebalancing began) showing thereby a decline of 87 per cent during the last four years.

In the case of international long distance (ILD) tariffs, the maximum decline has taken place in the tariffs applicable to countries in the American continent.

The tariff, which was Rs 75 per minute for ILD calls to countries in the American continent in pre-1999 period, declined to Rs 24 per minute in July 2002 witnessing a 68 per cent decline.