India’s telecom subscriber base declines in July: TRAI

NEW DELHI: The number of telephone subscribers in India declined from 1,059.86 million at the end of June-16 to 1,058.85 million at the end of July-16, thereby showing a monthly growth rate of -0.10%, according to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

The urban subscription increased from 609.45 million at the end of Jun-16 to 610.22 million at the end of Jul-16 whereas the rural subscription declined from 450.41 million to 448.63 million during the same period. The monthly growth rates of urban and rural subscription were 0.13% and -0.40% respectively during the month of Jul-16.

The overall Tele-density in India declined from 83.20 at the end of Jun- 16 to 83.04 at the end of Jul-16.

The Urban Tele-density declined from 153.22 at the end of Jun-16 to 153.18 at the end of Jul-16, and the Rural Tele-density also declined from 51.41 at the end of Jun-16 to 51.17 at the end of Jul-16.

The share of urban subscribers and rural subscribers in total number of telephone subscribers at the end of Jul-16 was 57.63% and 42.37% respectively.

Total wireless subscriber base declined from 1,035.12 million at the end of Jun-16 to 1,034.23 million at the end of Jul-16, thereby registering a monthly growth rate of -0.09%.

The Wireless subscription in urban areas increased from 588.78 million at the end of Jun-16 to 589.61 million at the end of Jul-16, whereas wireless subscription in rural areas declined from 446.33 million to 444.63 million during the same period. The monthly growth rates of urban and rural wireless subscription were 0.14% and -0.38% respectively.

The Wireless Tele-density in India declined from 81.26 at the end of Jun-16 to 81.11 at the end of Jul-16.

The Urban Wireless Tele-density slightly declined from 148.03 at the end of Jun-16 to 148.00 at the end of Jul-16, and Rural Wireless Tele-density also declined from 50.95 to 50.72 during the same period.

The share of urban and rural wireless subscribers in total number of wireless subscribers was 57.01% and 42.99% respectively at the end of Jul-16.

As on 31st July, 2016, the private access service providers held 90.88% market share of the wireless subscribers whereas BSNL and MTNL, the two PSU access service providers, had a market share of only 9.12%.

Out of the total wireless subscriber base (1,034.23 million), 919.28 million wireless subscribers were active on the date of peak VLR in the month of Jul-16. The proportion of active wireless subscribers was approximately 88.88% of the total wireless subscriber base.

Punjab service area recorded the highest growth rate in wireless subscribers during the month of Jul-16, whereas J&K service area showed maximum decline in wireless subscribers.

Mobile Number Portability (MNP)

Intra-service area Mobile number portability (MNP) has been implemented in Haryana service area w.e.f. 25.11.2010 and in the rest of the country w.e.f. 20.01.2011. Inter-Service Area MNP has been implemented in the country w.e.f. 03.07.2015. Now, the wireless telephone subscribers can retain their mobile numbers when they relocate from one service area to another.

In the month of Jul-16, a total of 4.91 million requests were received for MNP. With this, the cumulative MNP requests increased from 224.43 million at the end of Jun-16 to 229.34 million at the end of Jul-16, since the implementation of MNP.

In MNP Zone-I (Northern and Western India), the highest number of requests till date have been received in Rajasthan (about 19.48 million) followed by Gujarat (about 17.15 million).

In MNP Zone-II (Southern and Eastern India), the highest number of requests till date have been received in Karnataka (about 25.28 million) followed by Andhra Pradesh (about 21.42 million).

Wireline Subscribers

Wireline subscriber base declined from 24.74 million at the end of Jun- 16 to 24.62 million at the end of Jul-16. Net decline in the wireline subscriber base was 0.13 million with a monthly decline rate of 0.51%. The shares of urban and rural subscribers in total wireline subscribers were 83.74% and 16.26% respectively at the end of Jul-16.

The Overall Wireline Tele-density declined from 1.94 at the end of Jun-16 to 1.93 at the end of Jul-16. Urban Wireline Tele-density and Rural Wireline Tele-density were workout as 5.17 and 0.46 respectively.

BSNL and MTNL, the two PSU access service providers, held 71.18% of the wireline market share.

As per the reports received from the service providers, the number of broadband subscribers increased from 159.80 Million at the end of Jun- 16 to 166.96 million at the end of Jul-16 with a monthly growth rate of 4.48%.

Top five service providers constituted 84.83% market share of the total broadband subscribers at the end of Jul-16. These service providers were Bharti Airtel (44.41 million), Vodafone (33.36 million), Idea Cellular (28.19 million), BSNL (20.92 million) and Reliance Communications Group (14.74 million).

As on 31st July, 2016, the top five Wired Broadband Service providers were BSNL (9.86 million), Bharti Airtel (1.88 million), MTNL (1.08 million), Atria Convergence Technologies (1.05 million) and YOU Broadband (0.57 million).

As on 31st July, 2016, the top five Wireless Broadband Service providers were Bharti Airtel (42.53 million), Vodafone (33.36 million), Idea Cellular (28.19 million), Reliance Communications Group (14.63 million) and BSNL (11.07 million).