India Recorded 1 Billion Active Mobile Subscribers in December: TRAI

India recorded a billion active mobile subscriptions in December 2021, according to data from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). Airtel had the highest maximum proportion of active wireless subscribers at 98 percent, while MTNL had the lowest proportion at 18.58 percent during the same period, according to the report. The number of mobile users in the country had previously crossed the one-billion mark for the first time in 2016, four years after China. Meanwhile, 8.54 million requests were received for mobile number portability in December.

According to a TRAI report on telecom subscription data as of December 2021, the total number of mobile subscriptions in India was 1.155 billion in December, while the total number of active mobile subscribers counted in a day in December was 1,00,06,30,000. The total number of mobile subscriptions in India first touched the one-billion user mark in 2016, and is estimated to have one-billion smartphone users by 2026.

Airtel had the highest proportion of active wireless subscribers (VLR) in December 2021
Photo Credit: Screenshot/ TRAI

The report reveals that the total number of wireless subscribers in the country in December was 1,155 million, with a 12.88-million drop in subscriptions. There were 633 million mobile users in urban areas with a tele-density of 132.68 percent, while rural areas counted 521 million mobile subscribers and a tele-density of 58.28 percent.

In December, a total of 8.54 million subscribers submitted requests for mobile number portability (MNP), bringing the total porting requests in the country up to 661.42 million since MNP was implemented in the country in 2010.

According to the TRAI report, Reliance Jio had the biggest share of subscribers at 36 percent, with Airtel at second place with 30.81 percent. Vodafone Idea and BSNL had 23 percent and 9.90 percent of the market share, respectively.

Meanwhile, Airtel had the maximum proportion of active wireless subscribers (VLR) as against the total wireless subscribers (HLR) in December 2021 with 98.01 percent of active users, while MTNL had the lowest proportion of VLR at 18.58 percent, according to the report.