New Delhi: The average per minute charge for mobile service declined by 58 per cent to Rs1.20 per minute during the quarter ended December in comparison to Rs1.90 during the previous quarter.

According to the performance indicators for the quarter October-December 2004 launched by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the subscriber base of internet users has increased by six per cent during the quarter, with the number of subscribers increasing from 5.14 million to 5.45 million in December 2004.

With the broadband users base reaching 46,638, internet telephony recorded a usage of 43 million minutes. Average minutes of use per month for dial up internet subscribers was of the order of 275 minutes and the average revenue per user for internet service was Rs167.

The gross subscriber base of the fixed and mobile services reached 92.88 million at the end of the quarter from 86.86 million in September 2004, an increase of around seven per cent. The growth on annual basis is more than 31 per cent.

The subscribers of fixed service (fixed line and WLL-F) increased from 43.87 million to 44.87 million and that for mobile services (GSM + CDMA) from 43 million to 48 million.