Recession or not, Asia-Pacific continues to rack up impressive subscribers numbers.

Indian telecom regulator Trai revealed that the number of fixed and mobile subscribers had crossed the 500 million mark in September, a year ahead of schedule.

The number of telephone subscribers stood at 509.03 million at the end of September this year. This includes 471.7 million cellphone users and 37.31 million landline users -taking the country`s overall teledensity to 43.5%.

India`s current population is estimated at 1.17 billion.The telecom revolution began barely a decade ago. In 1999, there were only a million cellphone users as against 471.7 million in September this year -a staggering growth of over 47,000% just in a decade!

Analysts say that every 10% increase in telephone/cellphone connectivity leads to a 0.61% increase in a country`s gross domestic product

With 15 million new mobile subs in September, Indian cellcos are on track to hit 500 million wireless subs around the end of November.

Tata Indicom maintained its market lead, with a 26.7% share. Three operators battled closely for second place Bharti, with 16.7% market share, Reliance with 13.4% and Vodafone with 13.1%.

By contrast, the wireline customer base fell to 37.31 million from 33.33 million, with state-owned operators BSNL and MTNL feeling the brunt of the subscriber exodus.

Overall teledensity reached 43.5%. Broadband subscribers increased 3.3% to 7.2 million.

China and India together account for 90% of all Asian pay TV subscribers, with China having 69 million digital pay-TV connections, and India being home to 19 million.

Last year, a McKinsey report calculated that, for every 10 million connected via voice (cellphones), there is a positive impact of $1 billion on the GDP.

With its GDP now estimated at an impressive $1.2 trillion, India today boasts of being the world`s 12th largest economy by market exchange rates, and the fourth largest by purchasing power parity (ppp) basis.

With a cellphone instrument costing only a thousand Indian rupees, and with calls costing just a paisa for a second, the cellphone revolution`s contribution to India`s economic growth has more than modest