TRAI Report Card August 2016: BSNL Emerged As The Fourth Largest Mobile Operator In India, Beats All Private Operators In Growth Rate And In Net Subscriber Addition

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released the latest telecom subscription data as on 31st August 2016. State run telecom major, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) emerged as the fourth largest mobile operator in the country with a market share of 8.98%.

TRAI Report Card August 2016: BSNL emerged as the fourth largest mobile operator in India, beating all private operators in growth rate and in net subscriber addition

BSNL became the No.1 operator in monthly growth rate and in net addition of new customers in August 2016 beating all major private operators like – Airtel, Vodafone and Idea. As per the latest report, BSNL added more than 16.46 lakh new mobile customers and thereby increasing its market share from 8.77% to 8.98%.

BSNL achieved an outstanding monthly growth rate of 1.82% while the industry average is -0.52%. As we reported earlier, BSNL became the fifth largest mobile services company in the country in June 2016. 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.

BSNL’s Performance in Wireless Subscriber Addition

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%
May 2016	7.54 lakhs	0.86%	8.54%
June 2016	13.03 lakhs	1.48%	8.65%
July 2016	11.74 lakhs	1.31%	8.77%
August 2016	16.46 lakhs	1.82%	8.98%

As on 31st August 2016, the private access service providers held 90.67% market share of the wireless subscribers whereas BSNL and MTNL, the two PSUs access service providers, held only 9.33% market share.

The total number of telephone subscribers in India declined from 1058.85 million at the end of July 2016 to 1053.40 million at the end of August 2016, thereby showing a monthly growth rate of -0.52%.

Total wireless subscriber base declined from 1034.23 million at the end of July 2016 to 1028.88 million at the end of August 2016, thereby registering a monthly growth rate of -0.52%.

Among BSNL units, all telecom circles achieved positive growth except Andhra Pradesh (-6,297) and Karnataka (-66,158) in wireless subscriber addition July 2016. The best performers are : UP East (+3,54,317), Haryana (+2,85835), UP West (+1,60,581), Rajasthan (+1,51,572), Kerala (+1,47,857), and Punjab (+1,05,828).

BSNL holds the No.1 position in Landline segment with 56.80% market share. Airtel holds the No.1 position in Broadband segment (Wired + Wireless) position with 26.41% market share and Vodafone at second position with 20.39% market share as on 31st August 2016.

The total number of broadband subscribers in India, increased from 166.96 million at the end of July 2016 to 171.71 million at the end of August 2016 with monthly growth rate of 2.84%.

Top Five service providers constituted 85.16% market share of total broadband subscribers at the end of August 2016. These service providers were Bharti Airtel (45.35 million), Vodafone (35.01 million), Idea Cellular Ltd (29.58 million), BSNL (21.04 million) and Reliance Communications Group (15.24 million).

In Wired Broadband segment, BSNL holds the No.1 position with 9.84 million customers, followed by Bharati Airtel with 1.91 million customers.

Top Five Wired Broadband Service providers as on 31st July 2016

1.   BSNL (9.84 million)
2.   Bharti Airtel (1.91 million)
3.   Atria Convergence Technologies (1.09 million)
4.   MTNL (1.07 million)
5.   YOU Broadband (0.57 million)

Top Five Wireless Broadband Service providers as on 31st July 2016

1.   Bharti Airtel (43.44 million)
2.   Vodafone (35.00 million)
3.   Idea Cellular (29.58 million)
4.   Reliance Communications (15.13 million)
5.   BSNL (11.20 million)

Mobile Number Portability (MNP)

In the month of August 2016, a total of 5.13 million subscribers submitted their requests for MNP. With this, the cumulative MNP requests increased from 229.34 million at the end of July 2016 to 234.47 million at the end of August 2016.

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