Chennai joins 1cr mobile users league

CHENNAI: One crore and counting. Yes, Chennai has joined the elite list of cities which boast of one crore mobile phone connections. Delhi (comprising Faridabad, Ghaziabad and NCR) tops the list with about 2.4 crore and Mumbai, with 2.08 crore subscribers, comes next.
Chennai, which enjoys the highest teledensity in the country at 131% (131 wireless or mobile connections per 100 persons), had 99,99,553 mobile subscribers at the end of July 2009.In the beginning of August, the city needed to add another 447 subscribers to touch the one-crore mark; now it has crossed the milestone, according to service providers.
With an estimated population of 70 lakh, the Chennai Metropolitan Area, spanning nearly 1,200 sqkm has turned out to be a huge market for telecom operators. The city currently has seven operators and one more will launch its services soon. Between June and July, the operators added more than 3.47 lakh subscribers, according to Trai data.
������Chennai has the highest teledensity in the country. This is followed closely by Delhi and Mumbai, which have teledensity of about 100%. Bangalore and Hyderabad are inching closer to the 100% mark. The fact that Chennai has a perfect ecosystem ��� manufacturing, IT and the services sector ��� contributes to this factor,������ Kumar Ramanathan, head of operations (south), Vodafone, told TOI. In recent years, the city has seen industrial clusters growing at a rapid rate on its outskirts.