India’s telephone subscriber base estimated at 1,189.92 million at end-December 2024

The number of telephone subscribers in India increased from 1,187.15 million at the end of November 2024 to 1,189.92 million at the end of December 2024, showing a monthly growth of 0.23 per cent. During the period, the number of urban telephone subscription increased from 659.87 million to 663.37 million, while rural subscription decreased from 527.27 million to 526.56 million. 

Overall tele-density in the country increased from 84.32 per cent at the end of November 2024 to 84.45 per cent at the end of December 2024. During the period, urban tele-density increased from 131.01 per cent to 131.50 per cent, while rural tele-density decreased from 58.31 per cent to 58.22 per cent. The share of urban and rural subscribers stood at 55.75 per cent and 44.25 per cent, respectively, at the end of December 2024.

Out of the total 1,150.66 million wireless subscribers, 1,060.34 million were active on the date of peak VLR in December 2024. The proportion of active wireless subscribers was about 92.15 per cent of the total wireless subscriber base.

Reliance Communication had the maximum proportion of 100 per cent active wireless subscribers on the date of peak VLR in December 2024 while MTNL had the lowest VLR of 45.71 per cent during the period.

The cumulative number of mobile number portability (MNP) requests increased from 1,065.35 million at the end of November 2024 to 1,079.19 million at the end of December 2024, since the implementation of MNP. 

The number of wireline subscribers in the country increased from 38.50 million at the end of November 2024 to 39.27 million at the end of December 2024 – a net increase of 0.77 million or 1.99 per cent. The share of urban and rural subscribers in total wireline subscribers were 92.42 per cent and 7.58 per cent, respectively, at the end of December 2024.

Wireline tele-density in India increased from 2.73 per cent at the end of November 2024 to 2.79 per cent at the end of December 2024. Urban and rural wireline tele-density stood at 7.19 per cent and 0.33 per cent, respectively, during the same period. 

State-owned access service providers BSNL, MTNL and APSFL together held 22.23 per cent of the wireline market as of 31 December 2024. 

The number of wireless telephone subscribers increased from 1,148.65 million at the end of November 2024, to 1,150.66 million at the end of December 2024, showing a monthly growth of 0.17 per cent. During the month, wireless subscription in urban areas increased from 624.32 million to 627.08 million, while wireless subscription in rural areas decreased from 524.32 million to 523.58 million. 

Wireless tele-density in India increased from 81.59 per cent at the end of November 2024 to 81.67 per cent at the end of December 2024. During the period, wireless tele-density in urban areas increased from 123.95 per cent to 124.31 per cent while rural tele-density decreased from 57.99 per cent to 57.89 per cent. The share of urban and rural wireless subscribers stood at 54.50 per cent and 45.50 per cent, respectively at the end of December 2024. 

As of end-December 2024, private access service providers held 91.92 per cent of the market for wireless subscribers, while BSNL and MTNL together had a market share of just 8.08 per cent.

The number of broadband subscribers in India increased from 944.76 million at the end of November 2024 to 944.96 million at the end of December 2024, showing a marginal growth of 0.02 per cent. There were a total of 1,192 broadband operators as of December 2024, as per Trai data.

As of 31 December 2024, top five broadband (wired+wireless) service providers in terms of number of subscribers included Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (476.58 millio), Bharti Airtel Ltd (289.31 million), Vodafone Idea Ltd (126.38 million), Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (35.33 million) and Atria Convergence Technologies Ltd (2.27 million). They shared among them 98.40 of the total broadband market.