New Delhi, March 12 (IANS): The number of telephone subscribers in India increased from 970.97 million at the end of December 2014 to 979.21 million at the end of January 2015, thereby showing a monthly growth rate of 0.85 percent, official data showed Thursday.

The urban subscription increased from 572.29 million at the end of December 2014 to 575.05 million at the end of January 2015 and the rural subscription increased from 398.68 million to 404.16 million during the same period, said a statement by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

The overall tele-density in India increased from 77.58 at the end of December 2014 to 78.16 at the end of January 2015, it added.

The total wireless subscriber base increased from 943.97 million at the end of December 2014 to 952.34 million at the end of January 2015, thereby registering a monthly growth rate of 0.89 percent.

The wireline subscriber base declined from 27 million at the end of December 2014 to 26.87 million at the end of January 2015. Net reduction in the wireline subscriber base was 0.13 million at the monthly decline rate of 0.49 percent.

In the month of January 2015, a total of 3.56 million subscribers submitted their requests for mobile number portability (MNP). With this, the cumulative MNP requests increased from 142.98 million at the end of December 2014 to 146.54 million at the end of January 2015.

The number of broadband subscribers increased from 85.74 million at the end of December 2014 to 94.49 million at the end of January 2015 with monthly growth rate of 10.21 percent, TRAI added.