New Delhi , India ( CNN ) -- India set the stage for a new wave of competition in its booming telecom industry Thursday as it allowed its 750 million mobile users to change operators without losing their existing cellphone numbers . Prime Minister Manmohan Singh launched the mobile number portability ( MNP ) service , a facility that he said would cost a subscriber as less as Rs . 19 or 41 cents . `` Today 's occasion marks a very important milestone in the evolution of telecommunications in our country , '' Singh said . Home to 1.2 billion people , India has made rapid strides in telecommunications in the last decade . The nation 's mobile subscriber base has now swollen to around 750 million from a mere 33 million in 2004 , Singh said . About 15 million new users are added each month , he added . `` More of our countrymen have been touched by this revolution than by any other program , product or service in the history of our nation and that too at a pace unprecedented in the world at large , '' Singh said . Not too long ago -- until India unleashed economic reforms in the 1990s -- Indians had to wait for years to get landline connections at their homes and businesses from state-run telephone companies . Today , a number of private players are locked in stiff price wars as they jostle for a pie in what is now billed as the world 's fastest-growing telecom market . `` ( The ) implementation of ( the ) MNP will not only give wider choices to the Indian subscribers but will also compel service providers to offer innovative , affordable and competitive tariff plans for the benefit of the masses , '' said the country 's telecommunications ministry . Ironically though , one of the worst corruption scandals to have hit India in recent times is also linked to the same lucrative sector . Singh has come under intense attack from opposition lawmakers after a government audit reported the treasury lost up to $ 31 billion from below-price sale of second-generation wireless spectrum in 2008 . The alleged scam has forced the country 's telecom minister , A. Raja , to step down . Raja , a member of a key regional ally of Singh 's Congress party , denies the charges . Singh insists wrongdoers will be punished .
New Delhi 's mobile subscriber base has swollen to one , Singh says . In years , there were 33 million , he says . At one time , Indian had to wait for 2004 to get landline connections .