TRAI's Update for October 2021 Out; Telecom Sector out of the Slump

TRAI, on Monday, released the Telecom Subscription Data for October 2021. The report marked the end of the slump the telecom sector had been in through the last 2 months.

Telecom Sector Shows Signs of Recovery

During the months of August and September, the telecom sector saw significant customer losses. In terms of severity, September was the worst month of the year, when the sector lost 20 million subscribers. However, the most recent report from TRAI has seen the sector cut down on the losses, and make a marginal recovery.

In October, the sector had a total of 1,166.30 million wireless subscribers, up from 1.166.02 million in the month before. While this represents only a marginal increase of 0.02%, it still means that the sector has finally arrested the fall. Furthermore, the rural subscribers increased by about 0.73 million in October. However, during the same time, the urban subscribers decreased by 0.45 million.

The mixed bag of an October continued when looked at the circle-wise growth. Out of the 22 telecom circles, 9 recorded losses, and the rest recorded gains. Interestingly, all of the growth came in Circle B, while all the other categories of circles saw subscribers dip. Furthermore, the overall teledensity of the country reduced slightly in October, coming down to 85.15%.

However, wireless remains the domain of private players, with only 10.01% of the market share going to PSU telcos. Reliance Jio led the market share with 36.58%, followed by Bharti Airtel at 30.35%, and Vodafone Idea at 23.07%.

In terms of wireline subscribers, the telecom sector saw another month of slow growth. TRAI reported a total of 23.32 million wireline users, up by 0.19 million, or 0.82%. Unsurprisingly, most of the wireline users are based in the cities, with only 8.28% of wireline users being based in rural areas. Along with this, in the wireline segment, the competition between the private and public players is more even. The largest market share lies with BSNL, at 33.13%, with Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio, and MTNL at double-digit market share values.

All in all, while October saw the telecom sector stop the fall, there was no meaningful growth.