India's wireless subscriber base drops in July

Wireless subscribers in rural India declined from 446.33 million to 444.63 million. Representational image. Image source: Pixabay

India’s wireless subscribers declined by 8,83,903 users in July, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said on Friday.

TRAI data showed that wireless subscribers in rural India declined from 446.33 million to 444.63 million while urban areas saw an increase from 588.78 million to 589.61 million in the same period.

The share of urban and rural wireless subscribers in total number of wireless subscribers was 57.01% and 42.99% respectively.

Total subscriber base declined from 1,035.12 million in June to 1,034.23 million in July with rural areas owing to the decline in subscription.

In metro, telecom companies saw net addition of 2,43,817 subscribers.

Even though private service providers in held 90.88% market share in July, the report stated that BSNL, had the highest level of wireless subscribers of 11,74,732 while Reliance Communications lost 32,41,345 subscribers.

BSNL and MTNL together occupy only 9.12% of the market share whereas Reliance, Tata and Sistema have 9.23%, 5.67% and 0.71% market share respectively.