India’s telecom subscriber base sees a marginal increase in February 2024

The number of telecom subscribers in India increased from 1,193.25 million in January 2024 to 1,197.75 million at the end of February 2024, thereby showing a monthly growth rate of 0.38%, according to TRAI.

The urban telephone subscription increased to 663.72 million while rural subscription increased to 529.35 million with a sequential growth rate of 0.40 percent and 0.34 percent, respectively.

The overall tele-density in India increased from 85.38% at the end of January 2024 to 85.64% at the end of February 2024. The urban tele-density increased from 133.79% to 134.13% and rural tele-density also increased from 58.74% to 58.92% during the same period. The share of urban and rural subscribers in total number of telephone subscribers at the end of February 2024 were 55.64% and 44.36% respectively.

The total broadband subscribers also increased from 911.03 mn at the end of January to 916.77 mn at February-end. The top five service providers constituted 98.35 per cent of the total broadband subscribers. These service providers are Reliance Jio Infocomm (52.2 per cent), Bharti Airtel (29.41 per cent), Vodafone Idea (13.80 per cent), BSNL (2.69 per cent), and Atria Convergence (0.24 per cent).

All circles in both wireline and wireless segments registered growth in subscriber base in February.

The wireline subscriber base at the end of February increased to 33.1 mn with a monthly growth rate of 1.73 per cent. BSNL, MTNL, and APSFL, the three PSUs access service providers, held 28.18 percent of the wireline market share as of February 29, 2024.

The total number of wireless subscribers increased to 1160.71 mn, registering a monthly growth rate of 0.34 percent. Wireless subscription in urban areas increased from 633.96 million at the end of Jan-24 to 636.11 million at the end of Feb-24 and wireless subscription in rural areas also increased from 526.75 million to 528.53 million during the same period. Monthly growth rate of urban and rural wireless subscription was 0.34% and 0.34% respectively.

As on February 29, 2024, the private access service providers held 92.05 per cent market share of the wireless subscribers, whereas BSNL and MTNL had a market share of only 7.95 per cent.

During the month of February-24, a total of 11.54 million requests were received for MNP. Out of total 11.54 million, new requests received from Zone-I & Zone-II were 6.54 million and 4.99 million respectively. The cumulative MNP requests increased from 939.55 million at the end of January-24 to 951.09 million at the end of February-24, since the implementation of MNP.

For report, https://www.communicationstoday.co.in/telecom-subscription-data-feburary-2024-trai/

CT Bureau