TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) today said India has 500.68 million wireless phone subscriptions in rural areas at the end of October 2017.

India’s wireless phone subscriptions in rural areas increased 0.48 percent from 498.28 million in September 2017 to 500.68 million in October 2017.

TRAI said India’s wireless phone subscription in urban areas fell 1.06 percent from 684.77 million in September to 677.52 million in October.

India’s wireless subscribers on GSM, CDMA and 4G networks declined 0.41 percent from 1,183.04 million in September to 1,178.20 million in October as several operators continued to focus on active phone customers.

Top Indian telecom operators include Airtel with 24.21 percent share, Vodafone with 17.68 percent, Idea Cellular with 16.2 percent, Reliance Jio with 12.39 percent, BSNL with 9.03 percent and Aircel with 7.49 percent share.

Top broadband (wired and wireless) operators include Reliance Jio with 42.9 percent share, Airtel with 19.67 percent, Vodafone with 14.23 percent, Idea Cellular with 9.12 percent and BSNL with 6.23 percent.
The wireless tele-density in India declined from 91.56 in September to 91.11 in October. TRAI said the urban wireless tele-density fell from 168.20 in September to 166.67 in October.

Rural wireless tele-density increased from 56.31 to 56.54 during the same period. Share of urban and rural wireless subscribers in total number of wireless subscribers was 57.50 percent and 42.50 percent respectively.

TRAI said the number of broadband subscribers increased 4.7 percent from 324.89 million to 340.16 million.

Reliance Jio with 145.96 million, Bharti Airtel with 66.92 million, Vodafone with 48.42 million, Idea Cellular with 31.03 million and BSNL with 21.21 million are the top broadband operators in India.

The top five wired broadband service providers are BSNL with 9.48 million, Bharti Airtel with 2.13 million, Atria Convergence Technologies with 1.26 million, MTNL with 0.94 million and Hathway Cable with 0.68 million subscribers.

The top five wireless broadband service providers are Reliance Jio Infocomm with 145.96 million, Bharti Airtel with 64.80 million, Vodafone with 48.41 million, Idea Cellular with 31.03 million and Reliance Communications with 8.98 million subscribers.