BENGALURU: MukeshDhirubhai Ambani’s largest startup in the world in the form of Reliance JioInfocomm Ltd (Jio) reported the largest growth in wireless broadband subscribers for the month ended 31 August 2019 (Aug-19) in terms of absolute numbers. The Sunil Mittal headed Bharti Airtel reported the largest growth in percentage terms for the same period. While Jio’swireless broadband subscriber base grew by 0.305 crore (3.05 million or 30.5 lakh) or by 0.9 percent, Airtels’ subscriber base grew 2.3 percent or 0.276 crore (2.76 million, 27.6 lakh) in Aug-31 as compared to Jul-19. The top 5 wireless internet subscriber base grew 1 percent or by 0.612 crore (6.12 million, 61.2 lakh) in Aug-19 as compared to Jul-19.
Please refer to the chart below:
Top 5 Broadband Internet service providers across all platforms
The top five broadband service providers constituted 98.96 percent market share of the total broadband subscribers at the end of Aug-19. These service providers were Jiowith 34.824 crore (348.24 million, 3,482.4 lakh) subscribers, Bharti Airtel with 12.67 crore (126.70 million, 1,267 lakh) subscribers, Vodafone Idea with 11.111 crore (111.11 million, 1,111,1 lakh) subscribers, BSNL with 2.15 crore (21.50 million, 215 lakh) subscribers and Atria Convergence Technologies or ACT with 0.147 crore (1.47 million, 14.7 lakh) subscribers.
Overall, the country’s broadband subscriber base across all platforms grew 1.87 percent in Aug-19 from Jul-19. Internet through mobiles and phones witnessed subscriber growth of 1.97 percent or 1.15 crore (11.5 million, 115 lakh) during the period under review as compared to the previous month. Wired broadband internet subscriber base declined by 20,000 or by 1.08 percent to 1.832 crore (18.32 million, 183.2 lakh) subscribers from 1.852 crore (18.52 million, 185.2 lakh) subscribers. Please refer to the chart below.
The chart below shows the month-on-month (MOM) growth of broadband internet subscribers for a 20 month period starting Jan-18 till Aug-19. During this 20 month period, subscriber base growth was ranked 13 in terms of growth in absolute numbers and was ranked 14 in terms of percentage growth.
Please refer to the chart below:
Wired Broadband Internet Subscribers
As on 31st August, 2019, the top five Wired Broadband Service providers were BSNL with 0.879 crore (8.79 million, 87.9 lakh) subscribers, Bharti Airtel with 0.241 crore (2.41 million, 24.1 lakh) subscribers, ACT with 0.147 crore (1.47 million, 14.7 lakh) subscribers, Hathway Cable & Datacom with 0.085 crore (0.85 million, 8.5 lakh) subscribers and You Broadband with 0.075 crore (0.75 million, 7.5 lakh) subscribers. BSNL saw its subscriber base decline by 0.026 crore (0.26 million, 2.6 lakh), Airtel saw its base grow by 10,000 to 0.241 crore (24.1 million, 24.1 crore). The other three players among the top 5 wired internet service providers showed no change in the month of Aug-19 as compared to Jul-19.
