India Mobile Subscriber Stats Aug 2015: 5.48M New, 988.7M Total, 886M Active, 4.3M MNP Requests
TRAI have released their monthly telecom subscription report and according to it, India added 5.48 million new mobile subscribers in August 2015 – taking the total tally to 988.69 million. India is now just over 11 million short of the magical 1 billion mobile subscriber mark. In all probability that figure should be touched before 2015 ends.
If you include 26 odd million landline subscribers, the total telecom subscriber base in India stands at 1014.79 million.
Here is a graph showing mobile subscriber growth since January 2014.
In last 2 years, not a single month has seen negative growth, which was sort of norm in 2012, 2013 – the last time we say a subscriber fall was back in September 2013.
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Active Subscriber Base
While the total mobile subscriber base saw rise of 5.48 million, active subscriber base did not grow much. In fact, the percentage of active subscribers fell to 89.61 percent from 90.03 percent in July 2015. The active base stood at 885.94 million, which just 0.8 mln more than July.
Here is a graph showing Total vs Active subscriber base growth since January 2014.
Mobile Subscriber Growth Highlights [Aug 2015]
– With an increase of 5.48 mln in August 2015, total mobile subscriber base has reached to 988.68 million. India had 983.21 million subscribers by end of July 2015.
– Urban India witnessed a monthly subscription increase of 0.54 percent or 3.04 mln subscribers, while rural mobile subscriber base increased by 0.59 percent or 2.44 mln.
– Urban India has a total of 570.33 million, while rural India has a total of 418.36 million mobile subscribers.
– Urban Teledensity increased to 145.57 from 145.13 in July 15, while the rural tele-density increased to 48.09 from previous 47.84.
– Urban mobile subscriber share stands at 57.69% as compared 42.31% of rural subscribers.
– 4.31 million new Mobile portability requests were made in month of Aug 2015, taking the total tally of MNP requests since launch to 172.22 mln.
– Active Mobile Subscriber base increased from 885.15 mln in July 2015 to 885.94 million in August 2015, taking the active percentage to 89.61 percent.
– Delhi remained the circle with highest teledensity of 237.71, while Bihar has the lowest at 53.69
– Total Broadband (> 512 Kbps) subscription numbers increased from 113.32 Million at the end of Jul- 15 to 117.34 million at the end of Aug-15 with monthly growth rate of 3.55%.
– Out of 113.32 million broadband users, 97.04 million access internet through mobile devices or dongles.
Operator Wise Subscriber Additions [August 2015]
Like in July 2015, Bharti Airtel once again added maximum number of subscribers with 1.31 million new ones adding to the kitty. Idea remained at number 2 position adding 1.17 mln followed by Vodafone (1.13 mln) and Tata ( 0.83 mln). On the losing side, Reliance communication lost close to half a million subscribers
Bharti Airtel remains the leader with market share of 23.56 percent followed by Vodafone (18.87%) and Idea Cellular (16.58%).
In last one Idea Cellular (20.238 mln) and Airtel (20.591 mln) have added maximum subscribers, whereas BSNL has lost over 7 mln subscribers from its kitty
It seems the worst days for Tata are over as this is the third month in a row where they have show positive growth. In fact, in August they added fourth highest number of subscribers.
Top 8 Mobile Operators in Numbers
| # | Operator | Total Subscriber Count (till Aug 2015) |
| 1 | Bharti Airtel | 232,982,947 |
| 2 | Vodafone | 186,576,282 |
| 3 | Idea | 163,926,733 |
| 4 | Reliance | 109,950,781 |
| 5 | BSNL | 78,649,374 |
| 6 | Aircel | 83,748,691 |
| 7 | Tata | 62,541,699 |
| 8 | Telewings / Uninor | 47,553,200 |
[Trai Aug 2015 Report]
