With the Indian Telecom market buzzing with the news of wars between Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, it is very uncommon to see, any other player having an upper hand in any other segment. But there is still one segment of wired broadband connections in India, where BSNL is still the top player. At least for now. The speed with which Jio and Airtel are grabbing the market share of BSNL, the national telecom service operator leading the pack, might soon be history.
BSNL is dominating the market with a 21.5% market share
By August 2021, BSNL had a 21.5% market share in fixed broadband. It was followed by Reliance Jio at 14.5% and Bharti Airtel at 14.45%. Reliance Jio has overtaken Bharti Airtel to grab the second spot in the country on the back of healthy additions over the last many months.
To be precise, Jio has been consistently adding around 2 lakh fixed broadband connections every month in the past, and in August, the number has risen to 2.4 lakh. Although Bharti Airtel has also been adding fixed broadband subscribers every month, the pace is slower than Jio.
Both, Jio and Airtel, are capturing the market share from BSNL, for a long time now. Notably, BSNL had a market share of 44% in fixed broadband before the launch of JioFiber in September 2019. Since then, BSNL’s share has come down to 21.5%. As per TRAI, as of August, the wireline broadband base of BSNL stood at 54.9 lakhs, followed by 37.1 lakhs of Reliance Jio, 36.9 lakhs of Bharti, 19.5 lakhs of ACT, and 10.8 lakhs of Hathway Cable.
Covid has propelled the growth of Wired Broadband
With the Covid-led disruptions since last year, the usage of fixed broadband (FBB) has increased. Both Jio and Airtel have been adding healthy subscribers every month while extending their reach.
As per reports, before COVID, the subscriber growth has been modest in the last five years, with an annual CAGR of just 5%. The adaption to wired broadband has picked up since last year.
It should be noted that globally, wired broadband is well-established and significantly utilized for data consumption as it is cheaper than wireless. Whereas, in India, the need for data consumption is fulfilled through wireless as it is more cost-effective.
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