India has touched 1.2 billion telecom subscriber milestone as of April 2024, a monthly report by India’s Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) highlights. The milestone number owes to new gains made by India’s major telcos such as Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel.
India, the world’s third-largest telecommunication industry India now has 1.2 billion telecom service users. This is attributed to new growth for Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel while other service providers saw their user base shrink.
According to the monthly report from Indian telco regular TRAI, the subscriber base increased by 0.16% to 1,201.22 million at the end of April surpassing the previous total of 1,199.28 million in March 2024.
| Total telecom subscribers in India in April 2024 | Total telecom subscribers in India in March 2024 |
| 1,201.22 million | 1,199.28 million |
In wireline services, India’s total user base grew to 34.26 million in April which stood at 33.79 million in March 2024. In the wireline business, Jio added 3.56 lakh new users. Airtel added 1.19 thousand users while Vodafone-Idea attained 8,152 new users, respectively. BSNL, on the other hand, lost 36,490 subscribers from its base while MTNL also lost 14,856 users.
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More from TRAI India reports on telecom subscriber number
In the broadband sphere, mobile broadband users hit an 883.22 million user figure. India’s total broadband user base increased to 928.41 million in April from 924.07 million in March.
According to TRAI, India’s wireline teledensity rose from 2.41% in March to 2.45% in April 2024. The report shows that out of the 1,166.96 million wireless users, 1057.66 million users were active in April.
The authority said that it received 11.07 million requests for mobile number portability (MNP) in April 2024. This totals the cumulative requests for number portability to 973.60 million at the end of April 2024. India implemented the MNP in 2010.
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Jio, Airtel continue 5G dominance in India
Jio and Airtel’s growing 5G expansion as well as 4G LTE upgrade works have also helped to lure in more users to their high-speed networks.
In May 2024, India’s total 5G base stations reached 446,000 making it 31 5G BTS for 100,000 people, reports Time of India. Likewise, the country’s total 5G user base grew to 180 million with Jio True5G boasting 108 million users while Airtel has connected 72 million users as of Q4, 2024.
However, approaches to 5G are different between Jio and Airtel. Sunil Mittal-led Airtel is focused on non-standalone 5G (NSA 5G) technology. In contrast, Mukesh Ambani-owned Jio is investing in standalone 5G (SA 5G) architecture. If you are unaware of these two, we suggest you check out this post: 5G SA vs NSA: Differences, Pros, and Cons
While both are working on launching their satellite internet services in 2024, they have also launched Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) products in the market.
As the neighboring country India makes strides in 5G, Nepalese are yet to test the network first-hand on their devices. Nepal Telecom (NTC) ran 5G trails for a couple of years. However, the lack of an adequate number of 5G devices in Nepal derailed their initial testing. So, we can only wait and watch when 5G becomes available to the public.
Anyway, how do you see India reaching more milestones in its telecom subscriber figures? If you are familiar with it, do share with us your experiences with cellular networks and services in India. The comment section is open for your queries, sharing of experiences, and all kinds of inputs.
