MUMBAI: Although the wired internet subscriber base still represents a small portion of overall internet users in India, the sector is showing continuous growth in last three months. The total wired broadband subscriber base reached 20.47 million in August, up by 1.72 per cent compared to July.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released the telecom subscription data as on 31 August 2020.  As per the report, the top five Wired Broadband Service providers were BSNL (7.85 million), Bharti  Airtel  (2.53 million), Atria Convergence Technologies (1.70 million), Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (1.25 million) and Hathway Cable and Datacom (1.03 million). Other than the state-run BSNL, all other players were able to add new subscribers to its existing base.

Shaking off the Covid2019 effect on the telecom sector, the total number of broadband subscribers reached 716.19 million at the end of August with an overall growth of 1.53 per cent. In July, the report showed broadband subscribers at 705.40 million.

The top five service providers constituted 98.89 per cent market share of the total broadband subscribers at the end of August. These service providers were Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (403.92 million), Bharti Airtel (158.98 million), Vodafone Idea (119.91 million), BSNL (23.75 million) and Atria Convergence (1.70 million).

Overall broadband (wired+wireless) subscriber base was led by Jio with a 56.40 per cent share, followed by 22.20 per cent for Bharti Airtel, and 16.74 per cent for Vodafone Idea.

As on 31st August, the top five wireless broadband Service providers were Reliance Jio Infocom Ltd (402.67 million), Bharti Airtel (156.45 million), Vodafone Idea (119.91 million), BSNL (15.90 million) and Tikona Infinet Ltd. (0.31 million).