New Delhi, Aug 29 (IANS) India’s broadband subscriber base grew from 979.71 million at the end of June to 984.69 million at the end of July, marking a monthly growth of 0.51 per cent, the government said on Friday.

The growth was led by mobile broadband services, which continue to dominate with 930.41 million users, followed by fixed wired broadband at 45.49 million and fixed wireless broadband at 8.79 million.

While mobile broadband grew 0.39 per cent, wired broadband saw a higher monthly growth of 1.80 per cent, and fixed wireless broadband registered the fastest rise at 7.09 per cent during July.

The largest broadband providers in the country include Bharti Airtel at 307.07 million subscribers, Vodafone Idea at 127.58 million, BSNL at 34.27 million and Atria Convergence Technologies at 2.34 million.

In the wireline segment, subscribers rose to 48.11 million in July from 47.49 million a month earlier, registering a growth of 1.32 per cent. BSNL, MTNL and APSFL together held about 20.5 per cent of this market.

The wireless subscriber base, including mobile and 5G fixed wireless access (FWA), also grew slightly to 1,171.91 million in July from 1,170.88 million in June.

While urban subscriptions increased by 0.50 per cent to 641.03 million, rural subscriptions fell by 0.40 per cent to 530.88 million.

The government also said that India received 15.41 million requests for mobile number portability (MNP) during July.

With 984.69 million broadband connections and over 1.22 billion total telephone subscribers, India continues to consolidate its position as the world’s second-largest telecom market, driven by mobile data usage, growing fixed broadband adoption, and rapid 5G expansion.

Meanwhile, in the previous month, the total number of broadband subscribers was 979.71 million, up by 0.5 per cent from 974.87 million at the end of May, as per the TRAI data.

–IANS

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