NEW DELHI:
COAI, the apex industry association representing the country’s major Telecom, Internet, Technology & Digital Services companies, released the latest mobile subscriber numbers, for the month ending, November 2018. As per the data, India’s private telecom service providers (COAI member TSPs) have a total of 1025.59 million mobile subscribers. This includes subscriber figures of Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (RJIL) as of October 2018 (Source: TRAI).
Amongst the individual companies, Vodafone Idea Limited holds the top position, with total mobile subscriber base reaching 421.08 million (Vodafone: 215.99 million, Idea: 205.09 million). Bharti Airtel Ltd follows Vodafone Idea Limited, with 314.76 million subscribers, while Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd stood at 262.75 million subscribers.
The report also provides mobile subscriber numbers for individual circles. UP (East) circle remained at the top with a total of 87.35 million subscribers followed by Maharashtra at 85.16 million subscribers.
Talking about the development, Rajan S Mathews, Director General, COAI, stated, “Year 2017 has been a landmark year for the telecom sector with grounds being laid for the commercial roll-out of 5G and other emerging technologies such as M2M, IoT, AI, AR and VR. All stakeholders worked in unison to expand infrastructural capabilities in order to ensure robust connectivity and uninterrupted delivery of digital services to all. A whopping INR 10.4 lakh crore has already been spent towards building formidable and world-class telecom infrastructure. All the telecom operators are working together to establish India as a powerful, global digitally empowered knowledge economy of tomorrow. Innovations are in line and the path has been set. ”
Mobile connectivity and data services are imperative in the goal to bridge the digital divide in India. With these tools, we can move towards a truly equitable and democratic nation. The telecom industry therefore, deserves an urgent and immediate intervention to encourage policy and regulatory stability, and facilitate growth, innovation and investment in the sector. This is important, considering the mounting financial debt and debilitating financial health of the industry.
The industry remains committed towards working for a fully connected and digitally empowered India. Kindly note that we do not capture the monthly subscriber figures of BSNL, MTNL, Tata and RCom. Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd figures are of October 2018 (Source: TRAI). Hence, the net additions highlighted in our Subscriber figure report of the month of November 2018 will be in variance to the actual net additions of the Industry.
