New Delhi, Sep 23 - The growth in the addition to India's telecom subscriber base soared in August, after declining consistently since March.

While March saw a record 15.87 million new phone connections to take India's telecom density to nearly 40 percent, growth in additions had fallen to between 11-12 million a month between April and July.

However, August posted a turnaround with an addition of 15 million connections - a 3.13 percent growth - taking the total base to 494.07 million from 479.07 million at the end of July, data released Wednesday by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said.

According to TRAI, the overall tele-density reached 42.27 percent.

While 15.08 million wireless connections were added in August, 90,000 (0.09 million) people gave up their wireline or fixed line connections, taking the total addition that month to around 15 million.

India now has 456.74 million wireless subscribers and 37.33 million fixed line users, TRAI said, adding that wireline tele-density now stood at 3.19 percent.

The total number of broadband customers increased to 6.98 million in August from 6.8 million, registering a growth of 2.65 percent.