India’s telecom wireless subscribers decreased to 1,143.04 million at the end of November 2022, a monthly decline rate of 0.05 per cent compared to 1,143.63 million at the end of October 2022, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said on Friday in its monthly report on subscriber base.
Vodafone-Idea’s (VIL) net wireless subscribers further declined by 18,27,199 subscribers, while that of Bharti Airtel (Airtel) and Reliance Jio (Jio) grew by 10,56,430 and 14,26,817 subscribers respectively.
Urban vs rural
“Wireless subscription in urban areas increased to 626.60 million at the end of November from 625.18 million at the end of October. However, wireless subscription in rural areas decreased to 516.45 million from 518.45 million during the same period. Monthly growth rates of urban and rural wireless subscription were 0.24 per cent and -0.39 per cent respectively,” the sector regulator said.
At the end of November 2022, Airtel had a market share of 32.03 per cent, Jio 36.99 per cent and Idea 21.33 per cent. Share of State-owned BSNL was 9.41 per cent.
The data further said the wireless tele-density in India decreased from 82.75 per cent at the end of October to 82.64 per cent at the end of November. The urban wireless tele-density increased from 128.96 per cent at the end of October to 129.05 per cent as of November 30.
However, rural tele-density decreased from 57.78 per cent to 57.54 per cent during the same period. The share of urban and rural wireless subscribers in total number of wireless subscribers was 54.82 per cent and 45.18 per cent respectively at the end of November 2022, TRAI said.
In terms of active wireless subscribers (VLR), TRAI data showed that out of the total 1,143.04 million wireless subscribers, 1012.33 million wireless subscribers were active on the date of peak VLR in November. The proportion of active wireless subscribers was around 88.56 per cent of the total wireless subscriber base.
“Airtel has the maximum proportion 98.06 per cent of its active wireless subscribers (VLR) as against its total wireless subscribers on the date of peak VLR in the month of November and MTNL has the minimum proportion of VLR 24.09 per cent of its total wireless subscribers during the same period,” it said.
During the month, a total of 12.02 million requests were received for mobile number portability (MNP), TRAI added.
