BSNL Beats Airtel, Jio In Active Broadband Users; Cable Operators Getting Maximum New Users!

According to reports by ICICI Securities, Local Cable Operators (LCO) top the wired subscriber additions charts. There also has been an increase in users by 3,90,000 as recorded by broadband service providers.

These reports came closely after the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) released the Telecom Subscription Data for the month of October on Wednesday.

LOC Continues To Lead The Market.

Though BSNL still continues to have a major chunk of wired broadband market share (36%) to itself, other emerging broadband service providers are also making a mark. In the month of October, 50,000 subscribers ditched state runned BSNL and turned towards private alternatives like Airtel and Reliance Jio. 

Reliance Jio grew from 1.52 million subscribers to 1.7 million with an improved market share of 7.9%. Whereas Bharti Airtel recorded 70,000 new subscribers with a marginal increase in market share to 12.4%. 

Moreover, there has been a significant increase of 1.85% in the month of October and 12.7% overall annual growth as recorded by the wired broadband service providers.

A New Ray of Hope For Wired Broadband Service Providers

Earlier in November the Indian financial service firm, Motilal Oswal had underlined how the home broadband services market was dull for the last ten years. However, on Thursday the firm gave credence to the steady growth of the market as there has been a growth of 7% in subscribers from March to August 2020 with 84% of the market occupied by regional service providers.

In the November report, Motilal Oswal said, “Nevertheless, the market for even regional players remains buoyant, especially in the recent lockdown, as our channel check suggests there is increased demand for low ARPU conventional home broadband connectivity,”

As reported in the month of October, there are 21.5 million total subscribers of wired broadband services. The steady growth of the sector is also giving opportunities to small as well as big service providers.