Reliance Jio once again trumped the incumbent operators by a very large margin. According to official TRAI data, Jio added a whopping 16.26 million new connections in November 2016, taking their tally to over 51.8 million connections in less than 3 months of launch. The TRAI figures confirm the announcement made by Jio last year that they added 50 million subscribers in 83 days, which incidentally is a world record!
The hectic pace of of new connections by Jio ensured that Indian mobile subscriber base reached 1099.51 million. However, TRAI stats also point to the fact that, majority of Jio connections were taken by existing subscribers only as total active subscriber base actually shrunk by 2 million than previous month.
Here is a graph that should new mobile connection additions over last 2 years.
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Active Mobile Subscriber Base
The active mobile subscriber base in November 2016 stood at 968.83 million, as compared to 970.47 million in October 2016. This clearly points to the fact that people who picked up Jio Sims already had connections from other operators. It might also point to the fact that many subscribers could have taken MNP route to move to Jio services.
The active subscriber vs total subscriber percentage fell sharply to 88.11, lowest in last 2 years.
Here is a graph that depicts active subscriber base growth over last 2 years.
Mobile Subscriber Growth Highlights [November 2016]
– With an increase of 21.09 mln connections in Nov 2016, total mobile connections reached 1099.51 million. India had 1078.42 million connections by end of October 2016.
– Urban India witnessed a monthly growth rate of 2.68 percent or additions of 16.69 mln new connections, while rural mobile connections increased by 0.96 percent or 4.40 mln.
– Urban India has a total of 638.46 million, while rural India has a total of 461.05 million mobile connections.
– Rural India added 26.03 mln connections since Jan 2016, while Urban India added 55.51 mln
– Reliance Jio added more than 51 million connections in less than 3 months, a world record!
– Urban Teledensity increased to 159.27 from 155.35 in October 2016, while the rural teledensity increased to 52.45 from previous 51.98.
– Urban mobile subscriber share stands at 58.07% as compared 41.93% of rural subscribers.
– 4.76 million new Mobile portability requests were made in the month of Nov 2016, taking the total tally of MNP requests since launch to 244.39 mln.
– Active Mobile connections decreased from 970.47 million in Oct 2016 to 968.83 million in Nov 2016, taking the active percentage to 88.11 percent.
– Delhi remained the circle with the highest teledensity of 236.38, while Bihar has the lowest at 56.91. The all-India teledensity currently stands at 86.25.
– Total broadband (> 512 Kbps) subscribers slightly declined from 218.42 Million at the end of Oct-16 to 218.26 million at the end of Nov-16 with a monthly growth rate of -0.07%.
– Out of 218.26 million broadband users in India, 199.61 million access internet through mobile devices or dongles.
Operator Wise Subscriber Additions [Nov 2016]
With Jio setting records for new mobile connections, it was lackluster for most operators, except Idea who managed to add 2.5 million new connections. Market leader Airtel added shade above 1 mln followed by Vodafone (890k) and BSNL (831k). Biggest loser for November 2016 was Tata who lost over 1 million subscribers followed by Sistema (-289k)
Operator-wise Subscriber Additions in 2016
Within 3 months Jio added more connections than all other operators combined added since Jan 2016. Bharti Airtel added 20 mln followed by Idea (15.7 mln) and BSNL (13.2 Mln)
Here is a graph that depicts operator wise subscriber additions since Jan 2016
| Sr. No | Telecom Operator | Total Subscriber Count ( till Oct 2016) | New Subscriber Additions since Jan 2016 ( in Mln) |
| 1 | Bharti Airtel | 263,350,250 | 20.057 |
| 2 | Vodafone | 202,791,695 | 9.187 |
| 3 | Idea Cellular | 187,678,450 | 15.763 |
| 4 | Reliance Communication | 86,323,271 | -14.569 |
| 5 | BSNL | 95,784,070 | 13.272 |
| 6 | Aircel | 90,646,197 | 5.007 |
| 7 | Tata | 54,608,818 | -6.115 |
| 8 | Telewings / Telenor | 53,751,450 | 3.000 |
| 9 | Reliance Jio | 51,875,714 | 51.874 |
