Telecom subscriber base grows to 1,189.92 million in Dec; Jio tops: Trai

The total telephone subscriber base in India grew marginally to 1,189.92 million in December 2024 with Jio adding the highest number of subscribers in both mobile and fixed-line segments, a Trai report released on Tuesday said.

Total telephone subscribers stood at 1,187.15 million in November, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).

Reliance Jio Infocomm was the frontrunner with 476.58 million subscribers, followed by Bharti Airtel (289.31 million), and Vodafone Idea (126.38 million).

While urban telephone subscriptions rose from 659.87 million in November to 663.37 million in December, rural subscriptions fell from 527.27 million to 526.56 million during the same period.

Wireless subscribers grew from 1,148.65 million in November 2024 to 1,150.66 million in December 2024, at a monthly growth rate of 0.17 per cent.

Wireless teledensity increased to 81.67 per cent at the end of December, against 81.59 per cent at the end of November.

Reliance Jio added 3,906,123 wireless subscribers, while Bharti Airtel saw a net addition of 1,033,009 subscribers during the period. Vodafone Idea lost 1,715,975 wireless subscribers, according to the data.

BSNL and MTNL lost 316,599 and 896,988 wireless subscribers.

Private access service providers held 91.92 per cent market share of the wireless subscribers whereas BSNL and MTNL had a market share of only 8.08 per cent.

Wireline subscribers increased from 38.50 million at the end of November 2024 to 39.27 million at the end of December 2024. The Overall Wireline Tele-density in India increased from 2.73 per cent to 2.79 per cent.

Reliance Jio topped the charts, adding 6,56,823 wireline subscribers. It was followed by Bharti Airtel and Tata Teleservices, who added 1,62,945 and 9,278 wireline subscribers, respectively.

BSNL emerged as the biggest loser in the segment. The company lost 33,306 subscribers. BSNL's sister-concerned MTNL lost 14,054 subscribers.

Total broadband subscribers rose marginally from 944.76 million in November to 944.96 million in December, according to the data.

As of December 31, 2024, the top five broadband service providers who held over 98 per cent market share were Reliance Jio Infocomm (476.58 million subscribers), Bharti Airtel (289.31 million subscribers), Vodafone Idea (126.38 million subscribers), Bharat Sanchar Nigam (35.33 million subscribers), and Atria Convergence Technologies (2.27 million subscribers).

While Reliance Jio grabbed a 50.43 per cent market share, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea held 30.62 per cent and 13.37 per cent share of broadband services at the end of December 2024.