India's telecom subscriber base jumps 7.86 million in January, broadband growth lags

Mumbai: India's telecom subscriber base rose sharply in January, driven by strong wireless additions, even as broadband growth remained subdued, showed data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on Thursday.

Total telephone subscribers increased by 7.86 million in January to 1.314 billion. Wireless subscribers accounted for most of the growth, rising by 7.57 million to 1.266 billion, while wireline users grew by 0.29 million to 47.66 million, according to TRAI data.

Urban markets continued to outpace rural areas, adding 4.89 million subscribers compared with 2.97 million in rural regions. Urban teledensity rose to 149.84%, while rural teledensity lagged at 59.83%.


The wireless (mobile) subscriber base, excluding fixed wireless access, stood at 1.25 billion at the end of January, growing 0.54% month-on-month. Urban mobile subscriptions rose 0.71%, compared with 0.31% growth in rural areas.

Active wireless users, measured by Visitor Location Register (VLR), stood at 1.172 billion, accounting for about 93.7% of the total mobile subscriber base.

Broadband growth remained modest. Total broadband subscribers rose to 1.052 billion in January from 1.050 billion in December, a monthly growth rate of 0.20%.

Mobile broadband, which accounts for the bulk of users, grew just 0.09% to 990.95 million, while fixed wireless access (FWA) subscriptions rose 5.77% month-on-month to 15.95 million, showing early signs of saturation in the mobile segment and rising traction for 5G-based home broadband alternatives.

The 5G-based FWA segment alone expanded to 11.53 million users in January from 10.99 million in December, alongside 3.92 million users on unlicensed band radio (UBR)-based FWA services.

Among operators, Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. remained the largest broadband provider with 517.56 million subscribers, followed by Bharti Airtel Ltd. at 359.29 million and Vodafone Idea Ltd. at 128.97 million. State-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. had 29.64 million subscribers.

Machine-to-machine (M2M) connections rose to 113.46 million from 109.19 million in December, with Airtel leading the segment with a 61.85% market share.

Mobile number portability requests remained elevated at 15.98 million in January, reflecting continued churn and competitive intensity in the market.