India's broadband subscribers rose to 944.96 million in December 2024: Government data

The total number of broadband subscribers in India grew slightly in December 2024, reaching 944.96 million from 944.76 million in November, the Ministry of Communications said on Tuesday. This was a marginal monthly growth rate of 0.02 per cent. The top five broadband providers continued to dominate the market, accounting for 98.40 per cent of the total broadband user base, which includes both wired and wireless connections.

Urban telephone subscribers also saw an increase, rising to 663.37 million in December from 660.62 million in the previous month.

The urban segment witnessed a net addition of 3.50 million subscribers, with a monthly growth rate of 0.53 per cent.

Overall, the total number of telephone subscribers in the country stood at 1,189.92 million at the end of December, with a net addition of 2.78 million users.

The overall tele-density, which indicates the number of telephone connections per 100 people, increased to 84.45 per cent in December from 81.67 per cent in November.

Urban tele-density saw a rise to 131.50 per cent, while rural tele-density improved slightly to 58.22 per cent, as per the Ministry.

Meanwhile, the demand for mobile number portability (MNP) remained strong, with 13.85 million subscribers submitting MNP requests in December.

This pushed the cumulative number of MNP requests to 1,079.19 million since its introduction. The number of active wireless subscribers, based on peak visitor location register (VLR) data, stood at 1,060.34 million in December 2024.

Meanwhile, as per the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) data, around 13.45 million subscribers submitted their requests for MNP in October last year, taking the cumulative MNP requests from 1,039.11 million at the end of September to 1,052.56 million in October.

Wireline subscribers grew from 36.93 million in September to 37.79 million by the end of October, according to the government data.

As of October 31, BSNL, MTNL, and APSFL, the three PSU access service providers, collectively held a 23.29 per cent share of the wireline market.