BENGALURU: Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani’s largest start-up in the world in the form of Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (Jio) continued to lead broadband internet subscriber growth for the month of October 2018 (month ended 31 October 2018, Oct-18, period or month under review). Jio registered a net growth of 1.302 crore (13.02 million, 130.20 lakh) subscribers or 5.4 per cent during the month of October 2018. Since 31 December 2017 (Dec-17) or 1 January 2018, Jio’s subscriber base grew 9.216 crore (92.16 million 921.6 lakh) until 31 October 2018. At present, Jio’s subscriber base comprises only mobile device users – phones and dongles.

The Vodafone and Idea merger has made the new entity Vodafone-Idea the second largest wireless or mobile broad services provider in the country after Jio. Bharti Airtel is the second largest broadband internet services provider in India if one were to consider its wireless and wired internet subscriber base.

Overall, 1.442 crore (14.42 million, 144.2 lakh) net broadband subscribers were added in October 2018 – India’s broadband subscriber base grew by 2.99 percent in Oct-18.  

The largest growth was by mobile device users (phones and dongles) or mobile wireless users, followed by wired broadband subscribers which registered a small growth of 0.011 crore (0.11 million, 1.1 lakh) or 0.60 per cent in Oct-18. Fixed wireless subscribers base declined by 0.0003 crore (0.003 million, 0.03 lakh) or declined by 0.43 per cent in October 2018

Mobile device users subscriber base grew the 1.431 crore (14.31 million, 143.1 lakh) or 3.09 per cent during the month under review. India had a mobile device users subscriber base of 47.72 crore (477.20 million or 4,772.0 lakh) at the end of Oct-18 as compared to 46.289 crore (462.89 million, 4,628.9 lakh) at the end of Sep-18.

As per Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) data for Oct-18, the top five service providers constituted 98.42 per cent market share of the total broadband subscribers at the end of Oct-18. These service providers were Jio 26.275 crore (262.75 million, 2,627.5 lakh), Bharti Airtel 10.139 crore (101.39 million, 1,013.9 lakh), Vodafone Idea 10.133 crore (101.33 million, 1,013.3 lakh), BSNL 2.03 crore (20.30 million, 203 lakh) and Tata Tele. Group 0.251 crore (2.51 million, 25.1 lakh).

As on 31 October, 2018, the top five Wireless Broadband Service providers were Jio 26.275 crore (262.75 million, 2,627.5 lakh), Vodafone Idea 10.132 crore (101.32 million, 1,013.3 lakh), Bharti Airtel 9.914 crore (99.14 million, 991.4 lakh), BSNL 1.115 crore (11.15 million, 111.5 lakh) and Tata Teleservices 0.199 crore (1.99 million, 19.9 lakh).

As on 31 October, 2018, the top five wired broadband service providers were BSNL 0.915 crore (9.15 million, 91.5 lakh), Bharti Airtel 0.225 crore (2.25 million, 22.5 lakh), Atria Convergence Technologies (ACT) 0.137 crore (1.37 million), 13.7 lakh, MTNL 0.079 crore (0.79 million, 7.9 lakh) and Hathway Cable & Datacom (Hathway) 0.075 crore (0.75 million, 7.5 lakh).

The public sector MTNL continued to lose subscribers in Oct-18. As per TRAI data, MTNL’s subscriber base declined by 10,000 during the period nunder review. Among the top 5 wired broadband internet services providers, while Airtel and ACT added 10,000 subscribers each, besides MTNL, the other two players – BSNL and Hathway had no change in the number of subscribers in Oct-18 as compared to Sep-18. However, it is heartening to note that other smaller players, which could include MSOs and LCOs added 0.01 crore (0.1 million, 1 lakh) subscribers in the month.

Notes: According to Trai, Broadband internet means services with speeds equal to or higher than 512 kpbs.

Trai provides data in millions and to the second decimal place, hence the granularity of the data in this report is 10,000.