Telecom statistics

India’s active mobile users reached 1,026.37 mn: TRAI

February 21, 2019

India has 1,026.37 million active mobile users — on 2G, 3G and 4G networks – in 2018, TRAI said in its telecom statistics report.
India’s total mobile subscriber base including active and inactive users has reached 1,176 million in 2018. The proportion of active subscribers was approximately 87.28 percent of the total wireless subscriber base.

Bharti Airtel has the maximum proportion (98.68 percent) of its active wireless subscribers. Vodafone Idea has 93.33 percent active mobile phone customers on its network. Reliance Jio has 83.59 percent active customers on its 4G network. BSNL has 56.20 percent active mobile users in 2018.

Mobile customers in urban areas reached 647.52 million. India has 528.48 million mobile users in rural areas.
Mobile phone density in India was 89.78 in 2018. Mobile service tele-density was 155.48 in urban areas and 59.15 in rural areas.

Vodafone Idea has 35.61 percent share in Indian mobile service provider market against 28.93 percent for Airtel, 23.82 percent for Reliance Jio and 9.73 percent for BSNL during 2018.

Reliance Jio added 8.564 million customers in December 2018 as Vodafone Idea shed 2.331 million, Airtel 1.504 million and BSNL 0.556 million mobile phone customers. The strategy of Vodafone Idea and Airtel is to remove in-active customers from their network.

The number of broadband subscribers reached 518.55 million. India has 18.17 million wired broadband connections and 499.95 million wireless broadband connections in 2018.
Reliance Jio with 280.12 million, Vodafone Idea with 107.92 million, Bharti Airtel with 100.26 million and BSNL with 20.55 million are the top broadband operators in India in 2018.

BSNL with 9.17 million, Bharti Airtel with 2.27 million, Atria Convergence Technologies with 1.39 million, MTNL with 0.78 million and Hathway Cable with 0.78 million are the top wired broadband service providers.

Leading wireless broadband service providers are Reliance Jio with 280.12 million, Vodafone Idea with 107.90 million, Bharti Airtel with 97.99 million and BSNL with 11.38 million last year.