Highlights of Telecom Subscription Data as on 31st August, 2024

Access Service Provider-wise Net Addition/Decline in Wireline Subscribers during the month of August, 2024

3. Wireless subscriber

• Total wireless subscribers decreased from 1,169.61 million at the end of July-24, to 1,163.83 million at the end of August-24, thereby registering a monthly decline rate of 0.49%. Wireless subscription in urban areas decreased from 635.46 million at the end of July-24 to 633.21 million at the end of August-24, and wireless subscription in rural areas also decreased from 534.15 million to 530.63 million during the same period. Monthly decline rate of urban and rural wireless subscription was 0.35% and 0.66% respectively.

• The Wireless Tele-density in India decreased from 83.32% at the end of Jul-24 to 82.85% at the end of Aug-24. The Urban Wireless Tele-density decreased from 126.93% at the end of Jul-24 to 126.29% at the end of August-24 and Rural Tele-density also decreased from 59.14% to 58.74% during the same period. The share of urban and rural wireless subscribers in total number of wireless subscribers was 54.41% and 45.59% respectively at the end of Aug-24. Detailed statistics of wireless subscriber base is available at Annexure-II.

•      As on 31^st August, 2024, the private access service providers held 92% market share of the wireless subscribers whereas BSNL and MTNL, the two PSU access service providers, had a market share of only 8%.

• The graphical representation of access service provider-wise market share and net additions in wireless subscriber base are given below: –

Access Service Provider-wise Market Shares in term of Wireless Subscribers as on 31^st August, 2024

Net Addition in Wireless Subscribers of Access Service Providers in the month of August, 2024

Growth in Wireless Subscribers

Access Service Provider-wise Monthly Growth Rate of Wireless  Subscribers in the month of August, 2024

Note: BSNL includes its Virtual Network Operator (VNO).

Service Area-wise Monthly Growth Rate of Wireless Subscribers in the month of August, 2024

• Except Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat and Punjab all other service areas have showed decline in their wireless subscribers during the month of August-24.

M2M cellular mobile connections

Number of M2M cellular mobile connections increased from 53.67 million at the end of July, 24, to 54.07 million at the end of  August, 24.

Bharti Airtel Limited has the highest number of M2M cellular mobile connections 28.41 million with a market share of 52.54% followed by Vodafone idea Limited, Reliance Jio Infocom Limited and BSNL with market share of 27.18%, 14.72% and 5.56% respectively.

4. Total Telephone Subscribers

• The number of total telephone subscribers in India decreased from 1,205.17 million at the end of Jul-24 to 1,200.07 million at the end of Aug-24, thereby showing a monthly decline rate of 0.42%. Urban telephone subscription decreased from 667.96 million at the end of Jul-24 to 666.58 million at the end of Aug-24 and the rural subscription also decreased from 537.21 million to 533.49 million during the same period. The monthly decline rates of urban and rural telephone subscription were 0.21% and   0.69% respectively during the month of August-24.

• The overall Tele-density in India decreased from 85.85% at the end of Jul-24 to 85.43% at the end of Aug-24. The Urban Tele-density decreased from 133.42% at the end of Jul-24 to 132.94% at the end of Aug-24 and Rural Tele-density also decreased from 59.48% to 59.05% during the same period. The share of urban and rural subscribers in total number of telephone subscribers at the end of August-24 were 55.54% and 44.46% respectively.

Overall Tele-density (LSA Wise) – As on 31^st August, 2024

• As may be seen in the above chart, eight LSA have less tele-density than the all India average tele-density at the end of August-24. Delhi service area has maximum tele-density of 280.78% and the Bihar service area has minimum tele-density of 56.74% at the end of August-24.

Notes: –

1. Population data/projections are available state wise only.
2. Tele-density figures are derived from the telephone subscriber data provided by the access service providers and the projection of population from the “Report of the Technical Group on Population Projections for India and States 2011 – 2036, which is available under the link https://main.mohfw.gov.in/sites/default/files/Population%20Projection%20Report%202011-2036%20-%20upload_compressed_0.pdf
3. Telephone subscriber data for Delhi, includes, apart from the data for the State of Delhi, wireless subscriber data for the areas served by the local exchanges of Ghaziabad & Noida (in Uttar Pradesh) and Gurgaon & Faridabad (in Haryana).
4. Data/information for West Bengal includes Kolkata, Maharashtra includes Mumbai and Uttar Pradesh includes UPE & UPW service area(s).
5. Data/information for Andhra Pradesh includes Telengana, Madhya Pradesh includes Chhatishgarh, Bihar includes Jharkhand, Maharashtra includes Goa, Uttar Pradesh includes Uttarakhand, West Bengal includes Sikkim and North-East includes Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland & Tripura States.

5. Category-wise Growth in subscriber base

Circle Category-wise Net Additions in Telephone Subscribers in the month of August, 2024

Circle Category-wise monthly and yearly Growth Rates in Telephone Subscribers in the month of August, 2024

Note:  Circle Category-Metro includes Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. Data for Chennai has been included in Circle Category-A, as part of TamilNadu.

• As can be seen in the above tables, in wireless segment, during the month of August, 2024, on monthly basis all circles have registered decline rate in their subscriber base. On yearly basis all circles have registered growth rate in their subscriber base.

•  In Wireline segment, during the month of August, 2024, both on monthly and yearly basis, all circles have registered growth rate in their subscriber base.

6. Active Wireless Subscribers (VLR Data)

•  Out of the total 1,163.83 million wireless subscribers, 1061.48 million wireless subscribers were active on the date of peak VLR in the month of August-24. The proportion of active wireless subscribers was approximately 91.21% of the total wireless subscriber base.
•  The detailed statistics on proportion of active wireless subscribers (also referred to as VLR subscribers) on the date of peak VLR in the month of        August-24 is available at Annexure-III and the methodology used for reporting VLR subscribers is available at Annexure-IV.

Access Service Provider-wise Percentage of VLR Subscribers

in the month of August, 2024

•  Bharti Airtel Limited has the maximum proportion 99.24% of its active wireless subscribers (VLR) as against its total wireless subscribers (HLR) on the date of peak VLR in the month of       August-24 and MTNL has the minimum proportion of VLR 26% of its HLR during the same period.

Service Area wise percentage of VLR Subscribers

in the month of August, 2024

7. Mobile Number Portability (MNP)

• Intra-service area Mobile number portability (MNP) was implemented first in Haryana service area w.e.f. 25.11.2010 and in the rest of the country w.e.f. 20.01.2011. Inter-Service Area MNP has been implemented in the country w.e.f. 03.07.2015. Now, the wireless telephone subscribers can retain their mobile numbers when they relocate from one service area to another.
• During the month of August-24, a total of 14.66 million requests were received for MNP.  Out of total 14.66 million, new requests received from Zone-I & Zone-II were 8.16 million and 6.50 million respectively. The cumulative MNP requests increased from 1011.13 million at the end of July-24 to 1025.78 million at the end of August-24, since the implementation of MNP.

• In MNP Zone-I (Northern and Western India), the highest number of requests till date have been received in Uttar Pradesh-East (about 98.73 million) followed by Maharashtra (about 83.95 million) service area.
• In MNP Zone-II (Southern and Eastern India), the highest number of requests till date have been received in Madhya Pradesh (about 79.85 million) followed by Karnataka (about 69.67 million).

Contact details in case of any clarification: –

Note: Peak VLR figures in some circles of some of the service providers are more than their HLR  figures due to a large number of inroamers.