The Department of Telecommunication (DoT) on Tuesday released its Monthly Telecom Scenario report for June with the data highlighting that the telecom operators lost over one million subscribers in one month. According to the report, the telecom operators in India registered 1162.36 million subscribers in June. In May, the operators registered 1163.58 million subscribers with the data indicating that the operators lost 1.22 million subscribers in one month. The telecom operators have consistently lost subscribers in the past few months with the DoT data highlighting the operators registered 1176.79 million subscribers in March. However, the telecom operators in April registered only 1168.22 million subscribers potentially due to the COVID-19 impact.
Indian Telecom Operators Continue to Lose Subscribers
The DoT data highlights that the wireless sector contributed to the noticeable drop in the subscriber count with the telecom operators registering 1142.55 million wireless subscribers in June. In May, the telecom operators recorded a wireless subscriber base of 1143.81 million subscribers.
The telecom operators in India recorded a wireless subscriber base of 1157.67 million in March with the number dipping to 1149.44 million in April.
Similarly, the operators recorded a noticeable drop in wireline subscriber base between March and April. The DoT data highlights that the operators had a wireline subscriber base of 18.78 million wireline subscribers in April as compared to 19.13 million in March. However, the operators recorded a noticeable increase in wireline subscriber base since May. The DoT data said that the telecom operators had 19.77 million wireline subscribers in May with the number increasing to 19.81 million in June.
Crucially, the DoT report highlights that the drop in the telecom subscriber base in June is mostly due to rural regions. The telecom operators recorded a rural subscriber base of 523.53 million in June as compared to 525.56 million in May. However, the urban subscriber base had a noticeable increase with the DoT data highlighting the operators recorded 638.83 million urban subscribers in June as compared to 638.02 million in May.
India Registered Noticeable Drop in Overall Teledensity
Further, the overall teledensity is said to have decreased to 85.98% in June as compared to 86.15% in May. India recorded a wireless teledensity of 84.52% in June as compared to 84.68% in May. Meanwhile, the wireline teledensity had a marginal increase from 1.46% in May to 1.47% in June.
In terms of the regional breakdown, the urban areas had a teledensity of 138% in June while the rural areas accounted for 58.59%. In May, the urban areas accounted for 138.06% teledensity as compared to 59.15% rural teledensity.
Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka are the top five circles in terms of teledensity for the month of June. Himachal Pradesh recorded a teledensity of 147.10% in June as compared to 146.55% in May. Further, Kerala also recorded an increase in its telensity from 126.35% in May to 127.23% in June.
