In August, a few months before Tata Teleservices, who also operates Tata Docomo announced the merger with telecom giant Airtel, has been on the verge of an explosive growth. Well, according to the latest Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), telecom subscription data as on August 2017, the TATA’s added 4.88 million new subscribers to its network. That’s even higher than the current Indian telecom industry ‘Super Star’ Reliance Jio’s new subscriber addition of around 4.09 million.
During the same period industries leading telecom operators Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular lost a lump sum of subscribers from their network. The biggest loss, however, happened to Reliance Communications (RCom) with around 4.01 million subscriber decline. This loss can be attributed to the telcos plan to shut down its 2G/GSM network.
Stats on Telecom Subscription (31st August 2017)
- The number of telephone subscribers in India declined for the second consecutive month and now stands at 1,209.61 million.
- The total wireless subscriber which also includes GSM, CDMA and LTE subscribers in the country also declined slightly to 1,185.84 million.
- Private telecom operators hold 90.82 percent of Indian telecom market share. Whereas the two PSU telecom operators BSNL and MTNL have been improving their market share and now holds 9.18 percent.
- Tata Teleservices added the maximum number of subscribers to its network, followed by Reliance Jio and BSNL.
- On the losing side, RCom topped the chart followed by Idea Cellular and Vodafone India.
- Airtel retains the top position in India telecom sector with 23.70 percent market share. Followed by Vodafone India with 17.55 percent market share and Idea Cellular with 16.11 percent market share.
- During the month of August 2017, Kerala telecom circle showed maximum growth rate in wireless subscribers.
- Wireline subscriber base declined to 23.77 million. BSNL top’s the wireline segment with 54.33 percent market share, followed by Airtel with 16.41 percent market share.
- A total of 5.03 million porting requests received by various telcos for Mobile number portability (MNP). This will go up further in the coming months when RCom, Tata Teleservices and Telenor close down their business.
Stats on Indian Broadband (31st August 2017)
- The number of broadband subscribers, which include both mobile and wired subscribers increased to 316.48 million at the end of August 2017.
- Reliance Jio tops the chart in broadband data market in the country with 132.68 million subscribers. Airtel takes the second spot with 60.14 million data subscribers.
- Counting mobile broadband subscribers alone, Reliance Jio again tops with around 132.68 million data subscribers, thanks to its 4G LTE data-only network. Whereas, Airtel has 58.03 million subscribers and Vodafone India at third position with 43.55 million subscribers.
- On wired broadband connection, BSNL tops with 9.60 million subscribers. On the second spot, we have Airtel Broadband with 2.11 million subscribers.