TRAI Releases Annual Report For The Year 2017-18 -Telecom Sector

TRAI has released an annual report detailing the policies and program, review of general environment, and a summary of the key initiatives of TRAI on regulatory matters in the telecom and broadcasting sector. According to the report during the year 2017-18, a number of initiatives were taken by TRAI for the growth of telecommunications, broadcasting and cable sector.

The telecom sector has witnessed exponential growth over the last few years which was due to many factors such as affordable tariffs, wider service availability, roll out of new facilities and services such as Mobile Number Portability (MNP), 3G and 4G, evolving consumption patterns of subscribers, and conducive regulatory environment.

The Telecom Sector has witnessed a substantial growth of subscriber base during the year 2017-18 also. At the end of the financial year, the subscriber base was 1206.22 million out of which 1183.41 million were wireless subscribers. During the year, wireless subscriber base recorded an increase of 13.23 million, with the overall teledensity of 92.84 percent at the end of March 2018. The year also saw an increase in the rural teledensity from 56.91 percent to 59.05 percent, while the urban teledensity decreased from 171.80 percent to 165.90 percent. However, the number of telephone subscribers increased from 1,193.72 million at the end of November 2018 to 1,197.87 million at the end of December 2018, thereby showing a monthly growth rate of 0.35 percent. The urban subscription increased from 664.54 million at the end of November 2018 to 666.28 million at the end of December 2018, and the rural subscription increased from 529.18 million to 531.59 million during the same period. As on 31st December 2018, the private access service providers held 89.98 percent market share of the wireless subscribers. The proportion of active wireless subscribers was approximately 87.28 percent of the total wireless subscriber base. Bharti Airtel has the maximum proportion (98.68 percent) of its active wireless subscribers.

Inter-Service Area MNP was implemented in the country w.e.f.2015; 7^th July. Under this wireless telephone, subscribers can retain their mobile numbers when they relocate from one service area to another. With this the MNP requests increased from 272.76 million at the end of March 2017 to 370.83 million at the end of March 2018, which showed subscribers exercising their preference of service provider. In the month of December 2018, 4.76 million subscribers submitted their requests for Mobile Number Portability (MNP).

Net decline in the wireline subscriber base was 0.09 million with a monthly decline rate of 0.42 percent The share of urban and rural subscribers in total wireline subscribers were 85.78 percent and 14.22 percent respectively at the end of December  2018. The Overall Wireline Tele-density (%) declined from 1.68 at the end of November 2018 to 1.67 at the end of December 2018. Urban and Rural Wireline Tele-density were 4.50 and 0.35 respectively during the same period. BSNL and MTNL, the two PSU access service providers, held 67.24 percent of the wireline market share.

The Internet subscriber base in the country as on 31st March 2018 stood at 493.96 million as compared to 422.19 million as on 31^st March 2017. The total broadband subscriber base in the country has increased from 276.52 million as on 31st March 2017 to 412.60 at the end of 31^st March 2018. As per the reports received from 308 operators in the month of December 2018 as compared to 306 operators in the previous month, the number of broadband subscribers increased from 511.90 million at the end of November 2018 to 518.55 million at the end of December 2018 with a monthly growth rate of 1.30 percent. The Top five service providers constituted 98.57 percent market share of the total broadband subscribers at the end of December 2018. These service providers were Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (280.12 million), Vodafone Idea (107.92 million), Bharti Airtel (100.26 million), BSNL (20.55 million) and Tata Tele. Group (2.26 million).

On 31st December 2018, the top five Wired Broadband Service providers were BSNL (9.17 million), Bharti Airtel (2.27 million), Atria Convergence Technologies (1.39 million), MTNL (0.78 million), and Hathway Cable & Datacom (0.78 million). As on 31st December 2018, the top five Wireless Broadband Service providers were Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (280.12 million), Vodafone Idea (107.90 million), Bharti Airtel (97.99 million), BSNL (11.38 million), and Tata Teleservices (1.79 million).―CT Bureau

For full report click on: https://www.communicationstoday.co.in/trai-annual-report-2017-18/