KOLKATA: The wired broadband sector continued on its upward trajectory in November 2020, adding 3.8 lakh subscribers in the month. According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) report, the sector reached 21.89 million subscribers in the month. Jio is turning out to be the biggest gainer from the trend.

As on 30 November, the top five wired broadband service providers were BSNL, Bharti Airtel, Jio, Atria Convergence Technologies (ACT), Hathway Cable & Datacom. However, the state run service provider again ceded some of its subscriber base in November.

Jio Fiber added 1.7 lakh subscribers continuing its growth trend throughout the year, and is now sitting pretty on 1.87 million users. On the other hand, its biggest rival in the space – Airtel – gained 60,000 new users.

Among other players, ACT added 20,000 new subscribers reaching 1.76 million users. However, Hathway lost 10,000 subscribers as the overall base has come down to 1.04 million subscribers.

According to a recent report, the Asia Pacific (APAC) market now accounts for over half of the world's fixed broadband households, having breached that threshold at the end of 2019. However, India still has a long way to go as the majority of the country’s broadband need is fulfilled by the wireless sector.

The Covid2019 pandemic fuelled the growth in 2020 due to work from home, online classes, higher content consumption. Experts believe the growth is expected to rise this year too.