• India’s mobile subscribers decline 5.61m in May.
• Private access service providers held 89.21% market share of the wireless subscribers whereas BSNL and MTNL had a market share of only 10.79%.

Bengaluru:  India’s wireless subscribers (2G, 3G and 4G) decreased by 0.49 per cent in May as daily-wage workers and labourers migrated due to the nationwide lockdown.

According to TRAI stats, India had 1,143.91 million subscribers in May compared to 1,149.52 million in April.

However, wireless subscription in rural areas increased by 0.70 per cent from 520.08 million in April to 523.70 million in May while subscription in urban areas decreased by 1.47 per cent from 629.44 million in April to 620.21 million in May.

As of May, the private access service providers held 89.21 per cent market share of the wireless subscribers whereas BSNL and MTNL, the two PSU access service providers, had a market share of only 10.79 per cent.

In the month of May, 2.98 million subscribers submitted their requests for Mobile Number Portability (MNP). With this, the cumulative MNP requests increased from 488.23 million at the end of April to 491.21 million at the end of May, since implementation of MNP.

Intra-service area Mobile number portability (MNP) was implemented first in Haryana service area in November 2010 and the rest of the country from 2011.

”All service areas showed decline except Kerala and Bihar in their wireless subscribers during the month of May. Kerala service area showed maximum growth of 0.39 per cent in their wireless subscriber during the month,” TRAI report said.

India’s broadband (wired and wireless) subscribers increased 1.13 per cent month on month in May, with Reliance Jio taking the lion’s share.

According to TRAI stats, India had 683.77 million broadband subscribers in May compared to 676.14 million in April.

The top five service providers constituted 98.93 per cent market share of the total broadband subscribers. Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd had 393.72 million, followed by  Bharti Airtel with 145.96 million, Vodafone Idea with 113.06 million, BSNL with 22.07 million and Atria Convergence with 1.64 million.