NEW DELHI:
COAI, the apex industry association representing the country’s major Telecom, Internet, Technology & Digital Services companies, released the latest mobile subscriber numbers, for the month ending, September 2018. As per the data, India’s private telecom service providers (COAI member TSPs) have a total of 1017.71 million mobile subscribers. This includes subscriber figures of Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (RJIL) as of August 2018 (Source: TRAI).
Amongst the individual companies, Bharti Airtel Ltd. continues to hold the top position, with total mobile subscribers reaching 343.52 million. Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd follows Airtel, with 239.23 million subscribers. The report also provides mobile subscriber numbers for individual circles. UP (East) circle remained at the top with a total of 87.53 million subscribers followed by Maharashtra at 84.70 million subscribers.
Talking about the development, Rajan S Mathews, Director General, COAI, stated, “The telecom industry is an enabler of comprehensive growth and an empowered society, where every individual gets a chance to partake in the economic growth of the country. The industry has ensured that Government’s Digital India programme reaches the farthest corners of the country and everyone reaps the benefit of new communication technologies. All the operators are committed to their customers with the services across the country, and have begun heavily diversifying their services beyond voice & data for the consumer.”
Mobile connectivity and data services are imperative in the goal to bridge the digital divide in India. With these tools, we can move towards a truly equitable and democratic nation. The telecom industry therefore, deserves an urgent and immediate intervention to encourage policy and regulatory stability, and facilitate growth, innovation and investment in the sector. This is important, considering the mounting financial debt and debilitating financial health of the industry.
The industry remains committed towards working for a fully connected and digitally empowered India. Kindly note that we do not capture the monthly subscriber figures of BSNL, MTNL, Tata and RCom. Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd figures are of August 2018 (Source: TRAI). Hence, the net additions highlighted in our Subscriber figure report of the month of September 2018 will be in variance to the actual net additions of the Industry.
