Jio, Airtel lead India's 7.2M telecom subscriber additions
What's the story
India's telecom market witnessed a significant surge in subscribers last month, according to data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India(TRAI). The country's total telephone subscriber base, including wireless and wireline connections, grew by 7.23 million in September to reach 1.368 billion at the end of the month. This is an increase from August's figure of 1.361 billion, marking a monthly growth rate of 0.53%.
Subscriber increase
Wireless subscriber base grew by 6.94 million
The wireless subscriber base, which includes mobile and fixed wireless access (FWA) connections, grew by 6.94 million to reach 1.319 billion. This was a major contributor to the overall growth in telephone connections.
Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel led this expansion with a combined addition of around 5.4 million subscribers in September alone.
Urban expansion
Urban areas contributed significantly to the growth
Urban areas contributed significantly to the growth, adding 5.5 million telephone subscribers in September. This took the urban base to 807.78 million at the end of last month.
Rural areas also saw a rise with an addition of 1.73 million subscribers, taking their base to 560.16 million during this period.
Broadband growth
Increase in tele-density and broadband subscribers
India's overall tele-density, a measure of telephone connections relative to the population, increased to 95.52% at the end of September from 95.07% at the end of August.
The country's broadband subscriber base also saw an increase from 1.101 billion in August to 1.108 billion in September, registering a monthly growth rate of 0.59%.