Over 55 Million Indians Have Started Using Broadband Internet: TRAI

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) out for an optimistic figure about the Broadband Usage in India.

According to the regulator, 55.2 Million Indians have adopted the Broadband standard of Internet as of end of last year. Though this number includes wireless broadband users like Mobile Internet, the figure also indicates a stagnating affiliation towards fixed wire–line services.

Is broadband a very popular choice? Till the advent of 3G, Mobile Broadband wasn’t a possibility. This meant customers had to solely rely on wired terminals to hook their Desktops or Wireless Routers to access relatively higher speed of internet. However, 3G has significantly opened up access to wireless form of internet that is highly portable.

This change in the scale is quite visible from the fact that the number of wired broadband subscribers grew at just 1.9% as of November 2013 on a Year on Year (YoY) basis. Of the 55 Million subscribers 40.27 Million (73%) subscribers are mobile device users, 14.54 Million (26%) are wired subscribers and 0.39 Million use other wireless services like WiFi, WIMAX, point-to-point Radio and VSAT.

BSNL is the market leader: While state run BSNL may have faltered in the ever competitive telecom segment, when it comes Broadband Services no other company comes even close to matching its subscriber base, let alone exceed.

With 16.54 Million subscribers, BSNL has a huge lead as compared to its second competitor Bharti Airtel who has 10.88 Million Subscribers. If one segregates the segments then too BSNL leads in the Wired Broadband Services with almost 10 Million subscribers, while Bharti Airtel trails at just 1/10^th of BSNL’s subscriber base. However, the tides are turned when Wireless Broadband Access is considered. BSNL slips to third place as Bharti Airtel leads the Service Providers with 9.49 Million subscribers, followed by Reliance at 6.86 Million.

Broadband Internet is one of the most essential requirements to further the Digital Revolution in India. It is critical in all aspects, be it Education or Industrialization. One thing’s for sure though; high speed Internet is clearly being accepted in the Mobile form. What do you think?

Source | NextBigWhat

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