The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released its latest telecom subscription data, revealing a decline in total telephone subscribers during September 2024. The total subscriber base decreased to 1,190.66 million, down from 1,200.07 million in August 2024, marking a monthly decline rate of 0.78%. Within these figures, the total number of wireless subscribers decreased to 1,153.72 million, while wireline subscribers increased, reaching 36.93 million. The number of active wireless subscribers stood at 1,059.97 million during the period.
The urban-rural distribution showed significant changes, with urban telephone subscription decreasing to 662.15 million and rural subscription dropping to 528.51 million. The overall teledensity in India decreased from 85.43% to 84.69%, with urban teledensity at 131.86% and rural teledensity at 58.48%. This decline was reflected across most service areas, with only Odisha showing growth in wireless subscribers during September.
Five major service providers dominated the market in the broadband sector with a 98.42% share. Reliance Jio led with 477.94 million subscribers, followed by Bharti Airtel with 285.17 million, Vodafone Idea with 126.36 million, BSNL with 37.73 million, and Atria Convergence with 2.27 million subscribers. Regional variations remained significant, with Delhi maintaining the highest teledensity at 278.55%, while Bihar recorded the lowest at 56.40%.
Mobile Number Portability (MNP) showed continued activity, with the cumulative requests increasing from 1,025.78 million to 1,039.11 million by September end. The month saw 13.32 million new MNP requests, with Zone-I (Northern and Western India) receiving 7.48 million requests and Zone-II (Southern and Eastern India) receiving 5.84 million requests.
The Machine-to-Machine (M2M) sector also showed growth, with cellular connections increasing to 54.64 million. Bharti Airtel dominated this segment with 28.44 million connections, representing a 52.06% market share, followed by Vodafone Idea, Reliance Jio, and BSNL. These figures demonstrate the evolving landscape of India’s telecom sector, with varying growth patterns across different service categories and regions.
