TRAI Report Card April 2016: BSNL Became The No.1 Telecom Operator With Highest Growth Rate And Maximum Net Addition Of Wireless Customers

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released the latest telecom subscription data as on 30th April 2016. State run telecom major, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) recorded the highest number of wireless user additions ahead of all other private operators like – Airtel, Vodafone and Idea.

As per the latest report, BSNL added more than 11.39 lakhs of new mobile customers and thereby increasing its market share from 8.35% to 8.46%. Growth of BSNL in April 2016 is 1.32% which is 22 times higher than the industry growth rate of 0.06%.

As we reported earlier, the performance of BSNL in wireless subscriber addition and monthly growth rate is continuously increasing from July 2015 on wards – after the launch of FREE All India Roaming Scheme.

Performance of BSNL in net addition of Wireless Subscribers from July 2015 on wards

Month & Year	Net Addition of Wireless Subscribers by BSNL	Monthly Growth Rate of BSNL	Market Share of BSNL
July 2015	4.8 lakhs	0.62%	7.92%
August 2015	8.1 lakhs	1.04%	7.95%
September 2015	10.8 lakhs	1.33%	8.00%
October 2015	7.27 lakhs	0.91%	8.01%
November 2015	9.3 lakhs	1.16%	8.06%
December 2015	11.5 lakhs	1.41%	8.16%
January 2016	9.3 lakhs	1.12%	8.20%
February 2016	13.9 lakhs	1.67%	8.26%
March 2016	15.19 lakhs	1.79%	8.35%
April 2016	11.39 lakhs	1.32%	8.46%

Among BSNL units, all telecom circles achieved positive growth in wireless subscriber addition except Andhra Pradesh (-64,843) in April 2016. The best performers are – UP East (+1,77,837), Rajasthan (+1,70,700), Kerala (+1,11,214), UP West (+87,885), and Madhya Pradesh (+87,657).

BSNL holds the No.1 position in Landline segment with 58.10% market share. Airtel holds the No.1 position in Broadband segment (Wired + Wireless) position with 25.90% market share and Vodafone at second position with 18.61% market share as on 30th April 2016.

The total number of telephone subscribers in India increased from 1058.86 million at the end of March 2016 to 1059.29 million at the end of April 2016, thereby showing a monthly growth rate of 0.04%.

Total wireless subscriber base increased from 1026.66 million at the end of February 2016 to 1033.63 million at the end of March 2016, thereby registering a monthly growth rate of 0.68%.

As on 30th April 2016, the private access service providers held 91.20% market share of the wireless subscribers whereas BSNL and MTNL, the two PSUs access service providers, held only 8.80% market share.

The total number of broadband subscribers in India, increased from 144.87 million at the end of February 2016 to 149.75 million at the end of March 2016 with monthly growth rate of 3.37%.

Top Five service providers constituted 83.86% market share of total broadband subscribers at the end of April 2016. These service providers were Bharti Airtel (39.13 million), Vodafone (28.11 million), Idea Cellular Ltd (23.23 million), BSNL (20.48 million) and Reliance Communications Group (15.74 million).

In Wired Broadband segment, BSNL holds the No.1 position with 9.91 million customers, followed by Bharati Airtel with 1.76 million customers.

Top Five Wired Broadband Service providers as on 30th April 2016

1.   BSNL (9.91 million)
2.   Bharti Airtel (1.76 million)
3.   MTNL (1.10 million)
4.   Atria Convergence Technologies (0.96 million)
5.   YOU Broadband (0.54 million)

Top Five Wireless Broadband Service providers as on 30th April 2016

1.   Bharti Airtel (37.37 million)
2.   Vodafone (28.11 million)
3.   Idea Cellular (23.23 million)
4.   Reliance Communications (15.61 million)
5.   BSNL (10.58 million)

Mobile Number Portability (MNP)

In the month of April 2016, a total of 4.91 million subscribers submitted their requests for MNP. With this, the cumulative MNP requests increased from 209.13 million at the end of March 2016 to 214.04 million at the end of April 2016.

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