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Mobile users figure crosses 100 million mark

     New Delhi: Country's telephone customer base has crossed 100 million connections and is likely to cross 250 million by December 2007, IT and Telecommunication Minister Dayanidhi Maran said on Wednesday. Maran said that he expected the tariff rates would go down further benefiting the consumers at large with increasing competition. "Today is a very important day in the history of Indian telecom. Because today we have crossed the 10 crore mark i.e. the 100 million of subscribers in India. To be precise, the data I have before with me we are right now 102.7 million telephones in India. This takes the tele-density to 9.13 percent," Maran told reporters in New Delhi. Maran added that in terms of phones, India has become the fifth largest network in the world after China, US, Japan and Germany. India aims to have 250 million mobile phone users by the year 2007, achieving a tele-density of 22 percent. More than 87 percent of the villages have already been covered with most of it being provided by the state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited. In October 2004 India had more mobile connections than the landline connections. The growth for landline connections is still lagging at a mere 8 percent annually whereas mobile connections are over 50 percent.

Saurav to appeal against ICC ban (Go To Top)

     Kolkata: Cricket skipper Sourav Ganguly has decided to appeal against the ICC's six ODI match ban slapped on him. It was learnt after Ganguly arrived in Kolkata after being replaced by Rahul Dravid as the captain for the remaining two matches in the series. BCCI president Ranbir Singh Mahendra indicated that the appeal might be filed after the receipt of an official communication from the ICC. The ban was imposed on Ganguly for the team's slow over rate in the fourth one day match against Pakistan in Ahmedabad yesterday. As per ICC rules, if a team is found faulty twice in a year for slow over rate, a six-match ban can be imposed on its captain.

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