After commencing the commercial operation on 5th September 2016, announcing an industry first free voice calls and extending free unlimited voice, SMS and data offer, the new entrant to Indian telecom space Reliance Jio have attracted massive user base to its network. If you have read our earlier report, during the month of September 2016 alone, Reliance Jio added 15.9 million new subscribers to its 4G LTE network. Continuing this trend, during the full month of October 2016, Reliance Jio added around 19.6 million new subscribers to its network.
According to the latest telecom subscription data from Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), subscriber addition with Reliance Jio is almost 3 times when compared to the nearest competing telco. During the same period, Idea Cellular managed to add only 6.33 million subscribers, whereas Airtel added 2.32 million subscribers.
Highlights of Telecom Subscription Data (31st October 2016)
- The number of telephone subscribers in India has increased and now stands at 1,102.94 million.
- The overall teledensity in India increased to 86.25 at the end of October 2016.
- Total wireless subscriber base which also includes the mobile subscribers in the country increased to 1,078.42 million.
- Private telecom operators hold 90.86 percent of Indian telecom market share. Whereas the two PSU telecom operators BSNL and MTNL have a market share of 9.14 percent.
- Reliance Jio continued to add the maximum number of subscribers to its network, followed by Idea Cellular and Airtel.
- On the losing side, Tata Teleservices lost around 1.5 million subscribers during this period.
- Airtel still holds the top position in India telecom sector with 24.32 percent market share. Followed by Vodafone India with 18.72 percent market share and Idea Cellular with 17.17 percent market share.
- Airtel and Vodafone, however, lost a small percent of their market share to Idea and Reliance Jio.
- Out of the total wireless subscriber base, 970.47 million wireless subscribers were active on the date of peak VLR in the month of September 2016.
- Wireline subscriber base which includes BSNL landline finally showed a growth with net subscriber base increasing to 24.52 million.
- In the month of September alone a total of 4.93 million requests were received for Mobile number portability (MNP).
Highlights of Broadband Data(31st October 2016)
- The number of broadband subscribers, which include both mobile and wired subscribers increased to 218.42 million at the end of October 2016. Thus registering a monthly growth rate of 13.59 percent.
- Taking mobile broadband subscribers alone, Airtel tops the chart with 46.21 million subscribers. Vodafone India stands second with 40.19 million subscribers, followed by Reliance Jio with 35.94 million subscribers. Here Idea Cellular got dropped to the fourth position.
- On wired broadband connection BSNL tops with 9.94 million subscribers, followed by Airtel with 1.95 million subscribers.