Meghalaya has shown an encouraging growth in tele-density even as there are a total of 2.63 million wire-line and wireless subscribers of which 1.65 million are from the rural areas and 0.98 million are in urban areas of the State.
This was revealed in the Indian Telecom Services Performance Indicator Report of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) for the quarter ending December 31, 2023.
The report released last week provides a broad perspective of the telecom services in India and presents the key parameters and growth trends of the telecom services as well as Cable TV, DTH and Radio Broadcasting services in India for the period covering October 1, 2023 to December 31, 2023 compiled mainly on the basis of information furnished by the service providers.
The total tele-density in the State is 77.96 per cent which includes 61.55 in rural areas and 140.93 in urban areas.
According to the report, Himachal Pradesh service area has the highest rural tele-density of 85.96 followed by Andhra Pradesh service area of 77.87. Madhya Pradesh service area has the lowest rural tele-density of 43.27 followed by Bihar service area with rural tele-density of 43.44.
As far as wireless subscriber base is concerned, Meghalaya has a total of 2.57 million wireless subscribers. These include 1.64 million in rural areas and 0.93 million in the urban areas.
The wireless tele-density in the State is 76.22 per cent of which 61.45 per cent is in the rural areas and 132.91 per cent in urban areas.
Vodafone Idea Ltd and Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd are the two service providers providing wireline service in North East including Meghalaya.
The wireline tele-density in Meghalaya is 1.74 per cent. This includes 0.10 per cent in the rural areas and 8.03 per cent in the urban areas.
In terms of internet subscriber base for narrowband, the State has 0.02 million subscribers in the rural areas and 0.01 million in urban areas. The number of subscribers for broadband in the rural areas is 1.28 million while in the urban areas is 0.72 per cent.