Number of telecom subscribers grows marginally to 119.7 cr in Feb: TRAI

New Delhi: The number of telecom subscribers in India increased 0.38 per cent to 119.7 crore in February 2024 as compared to the previous month, according to a TRAI 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 per cent and 0.34 per cent, 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 Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

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

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 per cent.

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

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

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

Wireless subscription in rural areas increased from 52.67 crore to 52.85 crore at a monthly growth rate of 0.34 per cent, 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 per cent.

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.