The per second billing is doing wonders for the government’s target related to mobile penetration even if it is at the cost of financial growth of the operators. December 2009 saw Indian operators collectively signing up 19.1 million new subscribers for wireless services which is the highest figure till now witnessed in the country for a single month.

India’s mobile subscriber base now touches 525.15 million. When the wireline figures are also considered the subscriber base is seen at 562.21 million.

The overall tele-density in India is now at 47.89.

Tata Teleservices continues to enjoy the mind share gained by introduction of its now popular pay-per-second tariff model with the operator notching 3.33 million new subscribers. Market leader Bharti Airtel managed to add 2.81 million new subscribers in the month.Idea added 1.71 million while Aircel added 1.67 million subscribers.

PSUs BSNL and MTNL managed to add 2.08 million and 0.06 million subscribers respectively.

The wireline segment however continued to witness drop in subscriber base from 37.16 million to 37.06 million by the end of December.

The broadband subscriber base at the end of December reached 7.83 million from 7.57 million in November.