New Delhi, Nov 15 (PTI) The government today said total foreign direct investment (FDI) in the telecom sector since 2007-08 till August this year stood at Rs 33,957 crore.

"The total FDI inflow in Telecom sector during the past three years and the current year (April-August 2010) stands at Rs 33,957 crore," Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology Sachin Pilot said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

The FDI stood at Rs 5,103 crore in 2007-08, Rs 11,727 crore in 2008-09, Rs 12,338 crore in 2009-10 and Rs 4,789 crore in April-August 2010 period, he added.

Responding to another question, Pilot said the number of BlackBerry connections stood at 10.33 crore as on September 30, 2010.

This is against a userbase of 9.59 crore users in 2007-08, 13.06 crore in 2008-09 and 19.25 crore users in 2009-10.

Foreign direct investment in telecom reported cumulative inflows since 2007 08, with annual trends and subscriber growth data. The disclosure reports cumulative FDI inflows into the telecom sector since 2007 08 through the current reporting period, with an annual breakdown of inflows across consecutive years. It also provides subscriber counts for a specific device platform for the same reporting periods, linking capital inflow trends with market penetration data.