New Delhi, Jan. 15 (PTI): The number of telephone subscribers in India surged to 189.93 million in December 2006, taking the country’s tele-density to 17.16 per cent.

Wireless subscribers were the major contributors to the growth, with their total numbers standing at 149.50 million.

In all, 65 million telephony subscribers, including wireline and wireless, were added in 2006, which pushed the tele-density up by 50 per cent from 11.43 per cent in December 2005.

Of the 149.50 million wireless subscribers (GSM, CDMA and WLL-F) additions so far, 6.48 million users were added in December 2006 alone.

However, there was negative growth in the number of wireline subscribers at 0.08 million in December 2006 resulting in net addition of 6.40 million subscribers, as compared with 6.75 million during December 2006. The wireline subscriber base reached 40.43 million at the end of December 2006.

The gross telephony subscriber number of 189.93 million in December 2006 was higher than the number for November 2006, when the figure stood at 183.53 million.

The net addition of wireless and fixed line subscribers in the first nine months of 2006-07 is 49.61 million, which is almost twice as compared with addition of 26.37 million in the corresponding period of 2005-06.

Broadband connections have been growing consistently since the beginning of 2006. At the end of December 2006, total connections reached 2.10 million, with 0.1 million users added in December 2006.

The additions during the first nine months of the current financial year is 0.75 million compared with 0.72 millions during the corresponding period in the previous financial year.

The total increase in broadband subscribers from January to December 2006 is 1.20 million compared with the addition of 0.85 million during 2005.