India had 881.25 Million Internet Subscribers at the End of FY23: TRAI

Reported by Tanay Singh Thakur August 21st, 2023 at 06:15 pm

TRAI includes both broadband and narrowband internet subscribers in the list of total internet subscribers. Out of the total, broadband subscribers were 846.57 million and 34.69 million were narrowband internet subscribers. According to the data published by the regulator, the broadband internet subscriber base increased by 1.73% from 832.20 million to 846.57 million QoQ.

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Highlights

The Indian telecom industry has been growing at a rapid pace when the number of consumers is concerned.
There's still a lot of room to add more internet subscribers, and identifying that; the telcos are already bringing offers to entice more users to start using the internet.
India had over 881.25 million internet subscribers at the end of the March 2023 quarter.

India

The Indian telecom industry has been growing at a rapid pace when the number of consumers is concerned. There's still a lot of room to add more internet subscribers, and identifying that; the telcos are already bringing offers to entice more users to start using the internet. According to the latest TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) quarterly performance report of the telecom industry, India had over 881.25 million internet subscribers at the end of the March 2023 quarter. This was a growth from 865.90 million internet subscribers at the end of the December 2023 quarter. The number of internet subscribers in India registered a quarterly growth rate of 1.77%.

Out of the 881.25 million internet subscribers, only 33.94 million were wired internet subscribers while the remaining 847.331 million subscribers were wireless internet subscribers. This means that the telcos have a lot of room to grow in the wired internet space.

TRAI includes both broadband and narrowband internet subscribers in the list of total internet subscribers. Out of the total, broadband subscribers were 846.57 million and 34.69 million were narrowband internet subscribers. According to the data published by the regulator, the broadband internet subscriber base increased by 1.73% from 832.20 million to 846.57 million QoQ. The narrowband internet subscriber base grew from 33.70 million to 34.69 million QoQ registering a growth rate of 2.94%.

Improved ARPU from Wireless Services

The industry witnessed a growth in the average revenue per user (ARPU) figure from wireless services. It increased by 0.83% from Rs 141.14 in the quarter ending (QE) December 2022 to Rs 142.32 in QE March 2023. There was an increase in prepaid ARPU, which grew from 137.71 to Rs 139.63 QoQ while the postpaid ARPU decreased from Rs 182.30 to Rs 173.50 QoQ.

Telecom operators need their postpaid services ARPU to increase to maximise revenues. Jio's more affordable plans on offer could have had an impact that led to a decrease in postpaid ARPU.