Telecom Subscriber Base Sees Marginal Growth, Reaches 119.7 Crore In February: TRAI

The number of telecom subscribers in India increased 0.38% to 119.7 crore in February 2024 as compared to the previous month, according to a Telecom Regulatory Authority of India report published on Monday.

The urban telephone subscription increased to 66.37 crore while rural subscription increased to 53.13 crore with a sequential growth rate of 0.40% and 0.34%, respectively.

The total broadband subscribers also increased from 91.10 crore at the end of January to 91.67 crore at February-end, as per the monthly subscriber report published by TRAI.

Top five service providers constituted 98.35% of the total broadband subscribers. The service provider are Reliance Jio Infocomm (52.2%), Bharti Airtel (29.41%), Vodafone Idea (13.80%), BSNL (2.69%), and Atria Convergence (0.24%).

All circles in both wireline and wireless segments registered growth in subscriber base in February, the report said.

The wireline subscriber base at the end of February increased to 3.31 crore with a monthly growth rate of 1.73%.

"The overall wireline tele-density in India increased from 2.33% at the end of January 2024 to 2.37% at the end of February 2024. Urban and rural wireline tele-density were 6.10% and 0.31%, respectively during the same period," it said.

BSNL, MTNL and APSFL, the three PSUs access service providers, held 28.18% of the wireline market share as on Feb. 29, 2024, TRAI said.

The total number of wireless subscribers increased to 116.46 crore, registering a monthly growth rate of 0.34%.

Wireless subscription in rural areas increased from 52.67 crore to 52.85 crore at a monthly growth rate of 0.34%, same as that of urban.

As on February 29, 2024, the private access service providers held 92.05 per cent market share of the wireless subscribers, whereas BSNL and MTNL had a market share of only 7.95%.

The report said 1.15 crore requests were received in February for mobile number portability.

The highest number of requests received till date since the inception of portability services has been in Uttar Pradesh-East (about 8.86 crore) in North-West zone, and in Madhya Pradesh (about 7.33 crore) in South-East zone.