Vodafone Idea loses 42.8 lakh subs in June; Jio pips Airtel in subs addition: TRAI

In the month of June, 2021, 12.27 million subscribers submitted their requests for Mobile Number Portability.

With this, the cumulative MNP requests increased from 593.61 million at the end of May-21 to 605.88 million at the end of Jun-21, since implementation of MNP.

Number of active wireless subscribers (on the date of peak VLR#) in June, 2021 was 984.79 million.

I. Total Telephone Subscribers

• The number of telephone subscribers in India increased from 1,198.50 million at the end of May-21 to 1,202.57 million at the end of June-21, thereby showing a monthly growth rate of 0.34%. Urban telephone subscription increased from 661.18 million at the end of May-21 to 666.10 million at the end of Jun-21, however, the rural subscription decreased from 537.32 million to 536.47 million during the same period. The monthly growth rates of urban and rural telephone subscription were 0.74% and -0.16% respectively during the month of June-21.

• The overall Tele-density in India increased from 87.84% at the end of May-21 to 88.07% at the end of Jun-21. The Urban Tele-density increased from 140.04% at the end of May-21 to 140.86% at the end of Jun-21, however Rural Tele-density decreased from 60.22% to 60.10% during the same period. The share of urban and rural subscribers in total number of telephone subscribers at the end of June-21 was 55.39% and 44.61% respectively.

Overall Tele-density (LSA Wise) – As on 30th June, 2021

• As may be seen in the above chart, eight LSA have less tele-density than the all India average tele-density at the end of June-21. Delhi service area has maximum tele-density of 280.28% and the Bihar service area has minimum tele-density of 53.59% at the end of June-21

II. Category-wise Growth in subscriber base
Circle Category-wise Net Additions in Telephone Subscribers in the month of June 2021

Circle Category-wise monthly and yearly Growth Rates in
Telephone Subscribers in the month of June 2021

• As can be seen in the above tables, in wireless segment, on monthly and yearly basis Circles of all categories have registered growth rate in their subscriber base.
• In Wireline segment, on monthly basis except Circle ‘A’, circle of all categories showed growth rate in their number of wireline subscribers during the month of June, 2021. On yearly basis, Circles of all categories have registered growth rate in their subscriber base

III. Wireless subscriber

• Total wireless subscribers increased from 1,176.84 million at the end of May-21 to 1,180.83 million at the end of June-21, thereby registering a monthly growth rate of 0.34%. Wireless subscription in urban areas increased from 641.48 million at the end of May-21 to 646.29 million at the end of June-21 however, wireless subscription in rural areas decreased from 535.36 million to 534.54 million during the same period. Monthly growth rates of urban and rural wireless subscription were 0.75% and -0.15% respectively.

• The Wireless Tele-density in India increased from 86.25% at the end of May-21 to 86.48% at the end of June-21. The Urban Wireless Tele-density increased from 135.86% at the end of May-21 to 136.67% at the end of June-21 however, Rural Tele-density decreased from 60% to 59.89% during the same period. The share of urban and rural wireless subscribers in total number of wireless subscribers was 54.73% and 45.27% respectively at the end of June-21. Detailed statistics of wireless subscriber base is available at Annexure-I.

• As on 30th June, 2021, the private access service providers held 89.95% market share of the wireless subscribers whereas BSNL and MTNL, the two PSU access service providers, had a market share of only 10.05%.
• The graphical representation of access service provider-wise market share and net additions in wireless subscriber base are given below: –

Access Service Provider-wise Market Shares in term of Wireless
Subscribers as on 30th June, 2021

Net Additions/decline in Wireless Subscribers of Access
Service Providers in the month of June, 2021

IV. Growth in Wireless Subscribers
Access Service Provider-wise Monthly Growth Rate of Wireless
Subscribers in the month of June, 2021

Service Area-wise Monthly Growth Rate of Wireless Subscribers in the month of June, 2021

• Except Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh, all service areas showed growth in their wireless subscribers during the month of June-21.

V. Active Wireless Subscribers (VLR Data)

• Out of the total wireless subscribers (1,180.83 million), 984.79 million wireless subscribers were active on the date of peak VLR in the month of June-21. The proportion of active wireless subscribers was approximately 83.40% of the total wireless subscriber base.
• The detailed statistics on proportion of active wireless subscribers (also referred to as VLR subscribers) on the date of peak VLR in the month of June-21 is available at Annexure-II and the methodology used for reporting VLR subscribers is available at Annexure-IV.

Access Service Provider-wise Percentage of VLR Subscribers in the month of June, 2021

• Bharti Airtel has the maximum proportion (97.62%) of its active wireless subscribers (VLR) as against its total wireless subscribers (HLR) on the date of peak VLR in the month of June-21 and MTNL has the minimum proportion of VLR (17.78%) of its HLR during the same period.

Service Area wise percentage of VLR Subscribers in the month of June, 2021

VI. Mobile Number Portability (MNP)

• Intra-service area Mobile number portability (MNP) was implemented first 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.
• During the month of June-21, a total of 12.27 million requests were received for MNP. Out of total 12.27 million new requests, 7.31 million requests received from Zone-I and 4.95 million requests received from Zone-II. The cumulative MNP requests increased from 593.61 million at the end of May-21 to 605.88 million at the end of June-21, since the implementation of MNP.
• In MNP Zone-I (Northern and Western India), the highest number of requests till date have been received in Maharashtra (about 49.68 million) followed by Rajasthan (about 44.09 million) service area.
• In MNP Zone-II (Southern and Eastern India), the highest number of requests till date have been received in Karnataka (about 49.04 million) followed by Andhra Pradesh (about 47.16 million).

VII. Wireline Subscribers

• Wireline subscribers increased from 21.66 million at the end of May-21 to 21.74 million at the end of June-21. Net increase in the wireline subscriber base was 0.07 million with a monthly growth rate of 0.33%. The share of urban and rural subscribers in total wireline subscribers were 91.11% and 8.89% respectively at the end of June, 2021.
• The Overall Wireline Tele-density in India, at the end of Jun-21, remained same i.e. 1.59%, as was at the end of May-21. Urban and Rural Wireline Tele-density were 4.19% and 0.22% respectively during the same period.
• BSNL and MTNL, the two PSU access service providers, held 47.60% of the wireline market share as on 30th June, 2021. Detailed statistics of wireline subscriber base are available at Annexure-III.

Access Service Provider-wise Market Share of Wireline Subscribers as on 30th June, 2021

Access Service Provider-wise Net Additions/Decline in Wireline
Subscribers during the month of June, 2021

VIII. Broadband (≥ 512 Kbps download)

• As per the reports received from 440 operators in the month of June, 2021, the number of broadband subscribers increased from 780.27 million at the end of May-21 to 792.78 million at the end of June-21 with a monthly growth rate of 1.60%. Segment-wise broadband subscribers and their monthly growth rates are as below: –

 Segment–wise Broadband Subscribers and Monthly Growth Rate in the month of June, 2021

• Top five service providers constituted 98.77% market share of the total broadband subscribers at the end of June-21. These service providers were Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (439.91 million), Bharti Airtel (197.10 million), Vodafone Idea (121.42 million), BSNL (22.69 million) and Atria Convergence (1.91 million).
• The graphical representation of the service provider-wise market share of broadband services is given below: –

Service Provider-wise Market Share of Broadband (wired + wireless) Services as on 30th June 2021

• As on 30th June, 2021, the top five Wired Broadband Service providers were BSNL (6.03 million), Bharti Airtel (3.37 million), Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (3.22 million), Atria Convergence Technologies (1.91 million) and Hathway Cable & Datacom (1.06 million). As on 30th June, 2021, the top five Wireless Broadband Service providers were Reliance Jio Infocom Ltd (436.69 million), Bharti Airtel (193.74 million), Vodafone Idea (121.41 million), BSNL (16.67 million) and Tikona Infinet Ltd. (0.31 million).

1. The subscribers of M/s Bharti Airtel includes subscribers of M/s Tata Teleservices Ltd.
2. Virtual Network Operator (VNO) of BSNL has reported its subscriber number from the month of October, 2018.

Peak VLR figures in some circles of some of the service providers are more than their HLR figures due to a large number of inroamers.

BSNL-FTTH Voice-connections have also been incorporated from the month of May 2021

Annexure IV
VLR Subscribers in the Wireless Segment
Home Location Register (HLR) is a central database that contains details of each mobile phone subscriber that is authorized to use the GSM core network. The HLRs store details of every SIM card issued by the service provider. Each SIM has a unique identifier called an International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI), which is the primary key to each HLR record. The HLR data is stored for as long as a subscriber remains with the service provider. HLR also manages the mobility of subscribers by means of updating their position in administrative areas. It sends the subscriber data to a Visitor Location Register (VLR).

Subscriber numbers reported by the service providers is the difference between the numbers of IMSI registered in service provider’s HLR and sum of other figures as given below: –

Visitor Location Register (VLR) is a temporary database of the subscribers who have roamed into the particular area, which it serves. Each base station in the network is served by exactly one VLR; hence a subscriber cannot be present in more than one VLR at a time.

If subscriber is in active stage i.e. he is able to send/receive calls/SMSs he is available both in HLR and VLR. However, it may be possible that the subscriber is registered in HLR but not in VLR due to the reason that he is either switched-off or moved out of coverage area, not reachable etc. In such circumstances he will be available in HLR but not in VLR. This causes difference between subscriber number reported by the service providers based on HLR and numbers available in VLR.

The VLR subscriber data calculated here is based on active subscribers in VLR on the date of Peak subscriber number in VLR of the particular month for which the data is being collected. This data is to be taken from the switches having the purge time of not more than 72 hours.
CT Bureau