India’s telecom sector suffered the first-ever decline in the number of monthly subscriber in July this year, figures released by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) showed.

According to the latest TRAI report, the total number of telecom subscribers slipped by 20.71 million subscribers month on month, from 965.52 million in June to 944.81 million in July.

It was the first time in India’s telecom sector that overall subscriber base had shrunk.

Reliance Communications Ltd. suffered the biggest loss by losing around 20 million users. Tata Teleservices, Uninor, MTNL, Videocon and Loop also suffered fall in their subscriber base.

On the gainer-side, Bharti Airtel added more than 1.5 million new mobile customers, boosting its overall subscriber base to more than 188 million.

Vodafone, Idea Cellular, Aircel added more around 1.2 million, 0.45 million and 0.28 million subscribers in July respectively.

Meanwhile TRAI has ordered telecom operators to de-activate the international calling services on prepaid numbers, and restore these services only if a subscriber gives his explicit approval to avail the facility.

The telecom regulator has issued this directive after receiving complaints from consumers about international calls and SMSes that prompt consumers to make call to certain numbers that charge very high tariffs.