Latest data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) shows that the total number of broadband users in the country now stands at over 700 million (70 crore). As of July 31st, India apparently had 705.4 million broadband connections. The milestone is believed to have been achieved in July, when ISPs added 7.17 million new subscribers nationwide.
Do note that the figures include the combined wireless and fixed-line broadband usage numbers. However, the latter still represents a small segment of the overall market with just 20.13 million subscribers, while the total number of wireless connections hit a whopping 684.64 million. It is worth noting that the rate of growth in fixed-line services is higher than the wireless sector, but it’s still not substantial enough to change the status quo any time soon.
Another major takeaway from the report is that Reliance Jio has become the first telecom operator in the country to register 400 million (40 crore) mobile subscribers, although, a large chunk of them are apparently not active. That said, the TRAI data suggests that the company has about 312.9 million active subscribers, which is also substantially higher than the combined total of the other two telecom giants.
According to the TRAI data, the top five wireless broadband providers at the end of July 2020 were Jio with 400.80 million, Airtel with 153.25 million, Vi with 115.26 million, BSNL with 15.17 million, and Tikona with 0.30 million.
On the wired broadband front, BSNL continues to lead the market by some distance, but the company is also losing massive market-share every month. As of July 31, 2020, the top wired broadband providers in the country were BSNL with 7.86 million, Airtel with 2.49 million, ACT Fibernet with 1.69 million, Jio with 1.16 million, and Hathway with 1.01 million.
