Internet subscribers decline, broadband subscribers grows by 8%

The total number of Internet subscribers in India declined from 431.21 million at the end of June 2017 to 429.23 million at the end of September 2017 with quarterly decline rate of 0.46% on the other hand broadband subscribers increased from 300.84 million at the end of June 2017 to 324.89 million at the end of September 2017 with quarterly growth rate of 8%.

Wired Internet subscribers declined from 21.67 million at the end of June 2017 to 21.35 million at the end of September 2017 with quarterly decline rate of 1.44%. Wireless Internet subscribers declined from 409.55 million at the end of June 2017 to 407.88 million at the end of September 2017 with quarterly decline rate of 0.41%. The number of narrowband subscribers declined from 130.38 million at the end of June 2017 to 104.34 million at the end of September 2017 with quarterly decline rate of 19.97%.

In wired Internet segment, BSNL holds 59.61% market share with 12.74 million subscribers, followed by Bharti with 2.12 million subscribers. Total number of wired internet subscriber is 21.35 million at the end of September 2017. In wireless Internet segment, Reliance Jio holds 33.98% market share with 138.62 million subscribers followed by Bharti Airtel with 92.18 million wireless internet subscribers as on September 2017.

The total number of broadband subscribers increased to 324.89 million at the end of September 2017 out of which wired broadband subscribers are 18.04 million and wireless broadband subscribers are 306.86 million. Top five broadband (wired+wireless) service providers in term of subscribers are Reliance Jio (138.62 million), Bharti (62.29 million), Vodafone (45.98 million), Idea Cellular (29.61 million) and BSNL (21.24 million).

In wired broadband segment, BSNL holds 52.91% market share with 9.54 million subscribers followed by Bharti with 2.12 million subscribers. In wireless broadband segment, Reliance Jio holds 33.98% market share with 138.62 million subscribers followed by Bharti (14.75%) with 60.17 million subscribers.

Top five service areas in respect of broadband subscriptions are Maharashtra (27.90 million), Tamil Nadu including Chennai (26.21 million), Andhra Pradesh (25.10 million), Karnataka (23.58 million) and Delhi (23.45 million).

Private Internet service providers hold 92.04% market share of total Internet subscribers at the quarter ended September 2017.

Top five service areas in terms of Internet subscriptions (wired + wireless) are Maharashtra (35.01 million), Tamil Nadu including Chennai (34.47 million), Andhra Pradesh (32.57 million), Karnataka (29.11 million) and U.P. (E) (28.46 million).

Top 10 Internet Service Providers (As on September 2017):

Rank – Operator – Subscribers – Market Share

1. – Reliance Jio – 138.6 mn – 32.29%
2. – Bharti Airtel – 94.3 mn – 21.97%
3. – Vodafone – 67.7 mn – 15.77%
4. – Idea Cellular – 38.2 mn – 8.90%
5. – BSNL – 32.2 mn – 7.49%
6. – Aircel -16.2 mn – 3.78%
7. – RCOM – 16.2 mn – 3.78%
8. – Tata Teleservices – 9 mn – 2.10%
9. – Telenor – 8.3 mn – 1.93%
10. – MTNL – 1.9 mn – 0.44%

Total of 10 ISPs – 422.63 mn – 98.46%

Others – 6.60 mn – 1.54%

Grand Total – 429.23 mn – 100%

The International Internet bandwidth owned by various service providers is reported to be 2,956 Gbps during the quarter ending September 2017 as compared to 2,933 Gbps during the previous quarter. As per the reports received from 16 service providers providing Internet Telephony services, the total outgoing minutes of usage for Internet telephony is 283 million as on September 2017.

Mobile device users (dongle+phone) constitute 94.31% of total broadband subscribers at the end of Sep-17.

The top five narrowband (wired + wireless) service providers in term of subscriber base are Bharti (32.01 million), Vodafone (21.74 million), BSNL (10.92 million), Idea Cellular (8.59 million) and Telenor (7.97 million).