MUMBAI: With mobile penetration on the rise in India, the densely populated state of Uttar Pradesh is stated to have the largest number of mobile subscribers in the country, according to a data report by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).
Uttar Pradesh witnessed a total of 121.6 million mobile phone connections, followed by Tamil Nadu at 71.81mn. Maharashtra came in third with a total subscriber base of 67.73mn, Andhra Pradesh at 64.12mn and Bihar at 60.73mn, which together account for almost half the total wireless connections.
The five states together account of 366mn mobile subscribers, which is 45 per cent of the total cell phone connections in the country.
As per the reports, India being the world's second largest mobile phone market in terms of subscribers had a total of 861.66mn mobile connections as on February 2013, falling by 0.11 per cent from 862.6mn in January 2013.
Karnataka came in sixth with 52.45mn subscribers followed by Madhya Pradesh with 51.43mn. Attaining the eighth spot was Gujarat with 51.23mn connections and Rajasthan at ninth with 47.83mn subscribers.
India’s total telecom subscriber base, which includes mobile and landline connections, declined marginally to 892mn in February 2013 from 893.1mn at the end of January this year. India’s telecom subscriber base had touched an all-time high of 965.5mn in June 2012.