Telecommunications subscriber base increases slightly to 1,170.75 million in January 2023: TRAI

The country’s telecommunications subscriber base edged up to 1,170.75 million in January, driven by the net gain of customers in the fixed-line segment, according to a report from industry regulator TRAI released on Friday.

The net gain of the wireline segment was 0.28 million customers while mobile telephony recorded a net gain of 0.09 million subscribers.

Even though Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel jointly added 0.29 million new customers, the gain was offset by the loss of 0.28 million customers from BSNL and Vodafone Idea (VIL).

“The number of telephone subscribers in India increased from 1,170.38 million at the end of December 2022 to 1,170.75 million at the end of January 2023, thus showing a monthly growth rate of 0.03%,” said the Authority. Telecom Regulator of India in Subscriber Report. for the month of January 2023.

Wired or landline connections in the country fell from 27.45 million in December to 27.73 million in January.

Growth in the wireline segment was driven by Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Quadrant, which added 0.21 million, 0.11 million and 5,949 customers respectively.

State-owned MTNL was the biggest loser in the segment, as it lost 29,857 customers. It was followed by BSNL, which lost 19,781 landline customers, Tata Teleservices 9,444, VIL 3,727 and Reliance Communications 275 customers.

In the mobile or cordless segment, Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel added 1.65 million and 1.28 million customers respectively. BSNL, VIL and MTNL dampened segment growth by losing 1.48 million, 1.35 million and 2,960 mobile subscribers respectively.

The broadband subscriber base in the country increased from 832.2 million in December to 839.18 million in January.

“The top five service providers constituted 98.39% market share of the total number of broadband subscribers at the end of January 23. These service providers were Reliance Jio Infocomm (434.02 million), Bharti Airtel (237.40 million), Vodafone Idea (125.03 million), BSNL (27.05 million) and Atria Convergence (2.14 million)” , said TRAI.

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