The country's total telecom subscriber base rose by 10.4 per cent to 562.16 million in October-December 2009 over the previous quarter, telecom regulator TRAI said today.

The subscriber base for wireless services (GSM and CDMA) increased to 525.09 million during the quarter from 471.72 million during the previous quarter ended September 2009, TRAI said in its quarterly report.

The subscriber base of wireline service, however, declined to 37.06 million at the end of December 2009 from 37.31 million for the quarter ended September 2009, it added.

The overall teledensity (number of telephone users per 100 people) in the country has reached 47.88 as on December 31, 2009.

For the GSM segment, the average revenue per user (ARPU) per month has decreased by 12.4 per cent to Rs 144 in the October-December quarter from Rs 164 during the previous quarter, TRAI said.

Minutes of usage (MoU) per subscriber for GSM also dipped 2.82 per cent to 411 minutes in December quarter from 423 minutes in the previous quarter.

ARPU for the CDMA segment declined by 7 per cent to Rs 82 in the three-month period ended December 2009 against Rs 89 in the previous quarter.

However, MoU per subscriber for CDMA service increased by 3.2 per cent from 308 minutes (quarter ended September 2009) to 318 minutes (QE December 2009), TRAI said.

While the gross revenue for the telecom operators increased by 2.32 per cent to Rs 39,756.64 crore, the Adjusted Gross Revenue increased by 0.04 per cent to Rs 29,125.67 crore for the said quarter.

The Internet subscriber base increased to 15.24 million at the end of December 2009 from 14.63 million in the previous quarter, it said.