By PTI

New Delhi: India has achieved its target of 250 million telephone connections two months ahead of the scheduled December-end, telecom regulator Trai has said in a statement.

The gross number of telephones crossed 248.66 million in September with the addition of 7.64 million telephone connections, it said.

When contacted, Trai officials said with a monthly addition of six-to-seven million, in October, the 250 million telecom connections will be surely achieved, they said.

In fact, in September, the wireless subscriber addition was 7.8 million but due 0.16 million negative growth of wireline segment, the overall addition was 7.64 million. The wireline subscriber base decreased to 39.58 million in the month.

Mobile companies led by Bharti, Vodafone and Reliance are adding over six to seven million connections a month.

“Keeping the growth projections on conservative scale, the subscriber number has already crossed 250 million, the target for December 2007. Thus, the expectation of 500 million by 2010 is by no means ambitious. The teledensity target of 15% by 2010 was achieved last year, four years in advance ”, the statement said.

The overall teledensity (number of phones per 100 people) has reached 21.85% in September.

In August, there was an addition of 8.31 million mobile subscribers. Broadband subscriber growth continued to be tardy as the user base touched 2.67 million in September with the addition of 0.11 million connections.