BENGALURU: Overall broadband internet subscribers in India grew by 1.719 crore or 2.67 percent in the month ended 30November 2019 (Nov-19) from the numbers reported by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India for the month ended 30 October 2019 (Oct-19). Trai had reported 64.408 crore (644.48 million or 6,440.8 lakh) broadband internet subscribers across all segments for Oct-19. This number grew to 66.127 crore (661.27 million or 6,612.7 lakh) in Nov-19 as per the latest numbers published by Trai.
Subscriber growth for Nov-19 was the fifth highest over a 23 month period starting Jan-18 until Nov-19 in absolute numbers. In percentage terms, Nov-19 saw the twelfth highest growth during the same period. Over the period under consideration in the paper, broadband internet subscriber growth has been on a decline as is evident from the black trend line the graph below:
The figure below shows the subscriber growth ranking for the months during the period under consideration in this paper in terms of absolute growth numbers as well as percentage terms.
Trai data reveals that broadband subscribers grew by 1.713 crore (1.713 million or 171.3 lakh) or 2.74 percent to 64.154crore (641.54 million, 6,415.4 lakh) in Nov-19 from 62.441 crore (624.41 million or 6,244.1 lakh) in Oct-19 on the Mobiles (Phones and dongles) segment. Wired broadband internet segment grew by 0.005 crore (0.05 million or 0.05 lakh) or 0.28 percent in Nov-19 to 1.913 crore(19.13 million or 191.3 lakh) from 1.908 crore (19.08 million or 190.8 lakh) in Oct-19. Fixed wireless – WiFi, WiMax, Point to Pont, Radio, Vsat subscribers grew 0.001 crore (0.01 million or 0.1 lakh) or 0.47 percent to 0.06 crore (0.6 million or 6 lakh) in Nov-19 from 0.059 crore (0.59 million or 5.9 lakh) in the previous month.
Please refer to the figure below.
Top 5 Broadband Internet Subscribers
Top five service providers constituted 98.99 percent market share of the total broadband subscribers at the end of Nov-19. These service providers were Reliance Jio
Infocomm Ltd with 37.076 crore (370.76 million, 3,707.6 lakh) subscribers, Bharti Airtel with 13.992 (139.92 million, 1,399.2 lakh) subscribers, Vodafone Idea with 11.989 crore (119.89 million, 1,198.9 lakh) subscribers, BSNL with 2.254 crore (22.54 million, 225.4 lakh) subscribers and Atria Convergence with 0.15 crore (1.50 million, 15 lakh) subscribers.
Top 5 Wireless broadband Internet Subscribers
As on 30th November, 2019, the top five Wireless Broadband Service providers were Reliance Jio Infocom Ltd with 36.993 crore (369.93 million, 3,699.3 lakh) subscribers, Bharti Airtel with 13.751 crore (137.51 million, 1,375.1 lakh) subscribers, Vodafone Idea with 11.987 crore (119.87 million, 1,198.7 lakh)BSNL with 1.402 crore (14.02 million, 140.2 lakh) and MTNL 0.02 crore (0.20 million, 2 lakh).
Top 5 Wired broadband Internet Subscribers
As on 30th November, 2019, the top five Wired Broadband Service providers were BSNL with 0.851 crore (8.51 million, 85.1 lakh) subscribers, Bharti Airtel with 0.241 crore (2.41 million, 24.1 lakh) subscribers, Atria Convergence Technologies with 0.15 crore (1.50 million, 15 lakh) subscribers, Hathway Cable & Datacom with 0.088 crore (0.88 million, 8.8 lakh) subscribers and Reliance JioInfocomm Ltd with 0.083 crore (0.83 million, 8.3 lakh).Reliance JioInfocomm Limited was a new entrant to the top 5 list in October 2019. It replaced You Broadband which had 0.075 crore (0.75 million or 7.9 lakh) broadband internet subscribers in Sep-19. BSNL lost wired broadband internet subscribers in Nov-19.
The top 5 wired broadband internet service providers lost 40,000 subscribers in Nov-19. Since the wired internet broadband subscriber base grew by 50,000 during the same period, other smaller service providers which include MSOs and LCOs must have added 90,000 subscribers in Nov-19.
