New Delhi, July 11: The number of new telephone connections in June grew by 25.7 lakh to take the total subscriber base to 10.5 crore and teledensity to 9.70, the Telecom Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Trai) said today.

“Last month, approximately 25.7 lakh subscribers were added compared with 23.3 lakh additions in May this year. There were 19.8 lakh new mobile connections and around 5.9 lakh fixed lines,” the telecom regulator said in a release.

At the end of June, total fixed lines were 4.77 crore and mobiles 5.738 crore, taking the country’s teledensity to 9.70. In May, the teledensity was 9.46.

During the first quarter of the current financial year, approximately 51.6 lakh mobile subscribers were added, while the fixed-line segment witnessed an addition of 17.9 lakh users.

Broadband connections have also continued a steady growth rate since the beginning of 2005. At the end of June, total broadband connections in the country was close to 4 lakh, up from 63,000 in February.

AirTel cell sites

AirTel today announced that it would expand the number of its cell sites to 2000, covering about 600 towns in Tamil Nadu by March next year. The company has recently commissioned its third switch in Chennai, which will have a capacity to handle 3 lakh subscribers.

“With these 2000 cell sites, we will cover about 600 towns in Tamil Nadu. From May, we have added 63 towns in our network,” P. Swaminathan, chief executive officer (Tamil Nadu) of Bharti Cellular, said.

The cellular service provider also announced a special offer for long distance calls.

With a monthly rental of Rs 30, post-paid and pre-paid retail customers can make STD calls at Rs 2 per minute to any location in the country.