BENGALURU: India witnessed 2.91 percent growth in broadband internet customers in the month of May 2018 (May-18, month under review) according Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) data for the month ended 31 May 2018. Hence, 122.10 lakh (122.10 million, 1.221 crore) broadband subscribers were added in May-18. Comparatively, in April 2018, broadband internet customers grew 1.74 percent (71.90 lakh, 7.19 million, 0.719 crore) vis-a-vis the previous month.

The smallest segment among broadband internet services providers – the Fixed wireless- WiFi, Wi Max, Point to Point, Radio, Vsat segment, lost about 10,000 subscribers – the segment’s subscriber base fell from 4.2 lakh (0.42 million or 0.042 crore) to 4.1 lakh (0.41 million or 0.041 crore) during the month. The wired broadband internet subscriber base dropped by 30,000 to 179.40 lakh (17.94 million, 1.794 crore) in May-18 from 179.70 lakh (17.97 million, 1.797 crore) in the previous month.

A major portion-100.25 percent (122.40 lakh or 12.24 million or 1.224 crore) of the new users opted for wireless broadband internet through mobile devices and dongles in May-18. The mobile devices and dongles segment grew 3.05 percent in the month. It may be noted that TRAI considers download speeds equal to or in excess of 512 kbps as broadband internet. Also, TRAI subscriber numbers data is published in millions with two decimal places, hence the accuracy of this report is limited to the nearest 10,000 (Ten Thousand).

As on 31 May 2018, the top five broadband internet service providers were Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd orJio with 2055.4 lakh (205.54 million, 20.554 crore), Bharti Airtel or Airtel with 959.1 lakh (95.91 million, 9.591 crore), Vodafone with 614.2 lakh (61.42 million, 6.142 crore), Idea Cellular with 420.7 lakh (42.07 million, 4.207 crore) and BSNL with 207.5 lakh (20.57 million, 2.075 crore) subscribers respectively. The top five service providers constituted 97.54 percent market share of the total broadband subscribers at the end of May-18.

Wireless Internet

As on 31 May, 2018, the top five Wireless Broadband Service providers were Jio with 2055.4 lakh (205.54 million, 20.554 crore), Bharti Airtel with 894 lakh (89.40 million, 8,94 crore), Vodafone with 614.2 (61.42 million, 6.142 crore), Idea Cellular  with 420.7 lakh (42.07 million, 42.07 crore) and BSNL with 115.6 lakh (11.56 million, 1.156 crore) subscribers each.

Jio showed the largest growth in terms of absolute numbers across all segments. Jio’s subscribers have grown by 28.39 percent in calendar year 2018 (CY 2018) since 31 December 2017 (or 1 January 2018, Dec-17). Its subscriber base has grown from 1,600.9 lakh (160.09 million, 16.009 crore) as on 1 January 2017 to 2,055.4 lakh (205.54 million or 20.554 crore) on 31 March 2018. Jio grew by 94.21 lakh (9.421 million, 0.9421 crore) in May 2018. At present, Jio provides only wireless broadband internet services through mobile devices including phones and dongles. The highest growth rate in CY 2018 until May 2018 was also by Jio at 28.39 percent. Further Jio led subscriber growth in May-18 with respect to Apr-18 with 4.80 percent growth.  Idea lost 3.30 lakh subscribers (0.78 percent drop) in May-18. BSNL has also being losing subscribers on a regular basis. Please refer to the figure below

Wired Internet

Though growth of the wired internet subscribers until May-18 has been led by Hathway Cable & Datacom Limited (Hathway), TRAI data shows that the company did not add any significant numbers in May-18. Its subscriber base for Apr-18 and May-18 was the same as per TRAI data. The company added about 60,000 (grew by 8.22 percent) subscribers in CY 2018 until May-18 and its subscriber base grew to 7.9 lakh (0.79 million, 0.079 crore) from 7.3 lakh (0.73 million, 0.073 crore) at the beginning of CY 2018.

In May-18, the top five Wired Broadband Service providers were BSNL with 91.9 lakh (9.19 million, 0.919 crore), Bharti Airtel with 22 lakh (2.2 million, 0.22 crore), Atria Convergence Technologies or ACT with 13.2 lakh (1.32 million, 0.132 crore), MTNL 8.5 lakh (0.85 million, 0.085 crore and Hathway with 7.9 lakh (0.79 million, 0.079 crore) subscribers respectively. The government’s BSNL and MTNL have in general being losing subscribers. Please refer to the figure below.

Other broadband internet service providers
 
MSOs and (LCOs) or cable video service providers also provide wired broadband internet services in the country. These cable service providers have a number of subsidiaries and alliances, hence broadband numbers are split as applicable. The consolidated subscription numbers of these entities could be larger than the numbers of some of the wired internet services providers mentioned above. However, in general, quarterly results of the major MSOs’ until the quarter ended 31 March 2018 (Q4 2018) indicate that their wired broadband subscription addition efforts have been far below par, some have even had a drop in subscriber numbers.