 | This article needs to be updated. The reason given is: MTNL is yet not merged with BSNL, update accordingly TRAI's telecom subscription report.(October 2024) |
This is a list of telecom services providing companies in India. These companies are regulated by Department of Telecommunications and TRAI under Ministry of Communications, Government of India.
There are 4 pay-for-use DTH service providers and one free-to-air service provider (DD Free Dish) in India. [1]
As of 31 March 2024, there are 61.97 million active paying DTH subscribers, in addition to the subscribers of state-owned DD Free Dish, in the country according to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). DD Free Dish has over 4 crore (40 million) subscribers. [2]
Market share of pay DTH operators in India as of 31th March 2024, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)
| Operator | Market share | Ownership |
|---|---|---|
| Tata Play | 32.53% [1] | Tata Group (50.2%) Disney India (29.8%) Temasek (20%) |
| Airtel Digital TV | 28.45% [1] | Bharti Airtel (100%) |
| 20.46% [1] | Publicly Owned | |
| Sun Direct | 18.57% [1] | Sun TV Network (80%) Astro (20%) |
| DD Free Dish | Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (India) (100%) |
Notes
As of 31 March 2024, there are 880 MSOs (some also have an ISP license). [1]
List of top MSOs by subscribers
| No | Operator | Total Active Subscriber Base [1] |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | GTPL Hathway Ltd | 91,07,022 |
| 2 | Siti Networks Ltd | 53,00,428 |
| 3 | Hathway Digital Ltd | 52,92,476 |
| 4 | Thamizhaga Cable TV Communication Pvt Ltd. (TCCL) | 38,13,509 |
| 5 | Kerala Communicators Cable Ltd (KCCL) | 34,96,432 |
| 6 | Den Networks Ltd | 34,55,854 |
| 7 | NXT Digital Ltd (HITS) | 25,79,033 |
| 8 | KAL Cables | 20,01,969 |
| 9 | V K Digital Network Pvt. Ltd | 16,03,039 |
| 10 | Tamil Nadu Arasu Cable TV Corporation Ltd (TACTV) | 15,77,636 |
| 11 | Fastway Transmissions Pvt Ltd | 14,63,512 |
| 12 | NXT Digital Ltd (CATV) | 12,61,409 |
As of 30th September 2024 there are around 1.2 billion wireless subscribers in India according to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). [2]
Market share of Wireless Mobile operators in India as of 30th September 2024, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) [4]
Over the past decade, the Indian cellular services market has seen rapid consolidation. The launch of Jio Platforms in 2016 changed the market dynamics substantially as the company offered free data and voice services during its first year of operations, prompting a fierce price war in the market. Jio managed to garner over 8 crore (80 million). In 2018, airtel India lost its market leadership position for the first time in 15 years as a result of the completion of a merger between then telecom giants Vodafone India and Idea Cellular.
| Operator (Estd.) | Brands | Total Subscribers (million) | Active Subscribers (million) | Technologies | Ownership | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Airtel India (1995) | Airtel | 383.48 | 380.68 | 5G, 4G(VoLTE, VoWiFi), 2G | Bharti Enterprises (66.57) | The 'airtel' brand is operated by Bharti Hexacom Limited in Rajasthan and North-East India. Bharti Airtel owns 70% of Bharti Hexacom, while TCIL (Government of India) owns the remaining 30%. [5] Subscriber count and active users include Bharti Hexacom. |
| BSNL Mobile (2000) | BSNL | 91.91 | 54.77 | 4G(testing, not officially launched), 3G, 2G | Government of India (100%) | BSNL does not directly operate in Delhi and Mumbai. [6] BSNL (VNO's) operates only in Tamil Nadu. |
| Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (1986) | MTNL | 1.91 | 0.52 | 3G, 2G [7] | Government of India (100%) | MTNL only operates in Delhi and Mumbai. [8] MTNL is in the process of being merged with BSNL. The merger is expected to be completed by 2025. [9] Since January 2021, the operations of MTNL's networks have been outsourced to BSNL. [10] |
| Jio (2016) | Jio | 463.78 | 444.49 | 5G(VoNR), 4G(VoLTE), VoWiFi | Jio Platforms Limited (100%) | Not to be confused with Reliance Communications. |
| Vodafone Idea (2018) | Vi | 212.45 | 179.52 | 5G(select locations in Pune and Delhi), 4G(VoLTE, limited VoWiFi), 2G [11] | Government of India (23.8%) Vodafone Group (23.2%) Aditya Birla Group (15.0%) Public Shareholding (38.0%) | In February 2023, the Government of India converted ₹16,133 crore (~US$1.9 billion) debt owed to it by the operator into equity, after the company opted for the option given to it under a 'telecom reforms package'. [12] |
As of 25 October 2024, 16 mobile operators have ceased operations in India. The longest operating defunct operator is Aircel , while the oldest is Modi-Telstra [13] - which was also the first mobile operator in the country. [14] Most recently, Reliance Communications ceased operations citing bankruptcy. [15]
| Operator | Started operations | Ceased operations | Fate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Modi Telstra [13] | 1990 | Merged into Axiata Spice Communications [16] | |
| Escotel | 1996 | Merged into Idea Cellular [17] | |
| Hutch Essar | 1999 | Acquired by Vodafone to form Vodafone India | |
| Axiata Spice Communications | 1992 | Merged into Idea Cellular [18] | |
| S Tel | 2012 | Licence cancelled by the Supreme Court of India | |
| Etisalat | 2010 [19] | 2012 | Licence cancelled by the Supreme Court of India [20] |
| BPL Mobile (Loop Mobile) | 1995 | 2014 | Ceased operations after expiration of licence [21] |
| Virgin Mobile India / T24 Mobile | 2009 [22] | 2015 | Merged into Tata Docomo [23] |
| Singtel | 2009 | 2017 | Acquired by Reliance Communications |
| Videocon Telecom | 2010 [24] | 2016 | Shut down following sale of spectrum to Bharti Airtel [25] [26] |
| MTS India | 2009 | 2017 | Acquired by Reliance Communications [27] |
| Aircel | 1999 | 2018 | Bankrupt [28] |
| Telenor India | 2006 | 2018 | Acquired by Bharti Airtel [29] |
| Idea Cellular | 2002 | 2018 | Merged with Vodafone India to form Vi [30] [31] |
| Vodafone India | 2011 | 2018 | Merged with Idea Cellular to form Vi [30] [31] |
| Tata Docomo | 2009 | 2019 | Acquired by Bharti Airtel [32] |
| Reliance Communications | 2004 | 2019 | Declared bankruptcy, subsequently acquired by Reliance JIO [15] |
As of 30 September 2024, there are 36.93 million wireline subscribers in India according to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). [2]
Market share of fixed-line telecom operators in India as of 30 September 2024, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India [2]
| Operator | Subscribers [1] (lakh) | Ownership |
|---|---|---|
| Jio | 150.00 | Jio Platforms |
| Airtel | 93.22 | Bharti Airtel |
| BSNL | 61.34 | Government of India |
| Tata Teleservices | 23.62 | Tata Group |
| Vi | 8.65 | Vodafone Idea Limited |
| Quadrant | 3.56 | |
| Reliance Communications | 1.18 | Reliance ADAG |
Internet service providers (ISPs) offering broadband (wired + wireless) services. The total number of broadband subscribers stood at 944.40 million as of 30 September 2024. [33] [34] Total Wireless broadband subscribers stood at 899.79 million and wireline broadband subscribers stood at 44.62 million. [4] The top 5 services constituted 98.42% market share of the total broadband subscribers. [34]
As of 30 September 2024, top five Wireless Broadband Service providers
| Operator | Subscribers [34] (million) | Ownership |
|---|---|---|
| Jio | 463.78 | Jio Platforms |
| Airtel | 276.68 | Bharti Airtel |
| Vi | 126.35 | Vodafone Idea Limited |
| BSNL | 33.50 | Government of India |
| Intech Online Pvt. Ltd | 0.25 |
The following table shows the top 5 wired broadband service providers in India by total subscriber base as of 30 April 2024.
| Provider | Subscribers [34] (million) | Ownership |
|---|---|---|
| JioFiber | 14.16 | Jio Platforms |
| Airtel | 8.48 | Bharti Airtel |
| BSNL | 4.23 | Government of India |
| ACT | 2.27 | Atria Convergence |
| KVBL | 1.22 | Kerala Vision Broadband Ltd |
| Provider | Ownership |
|---|---|
| APSFL | Government of Andhra Pradesh |
| Asianet Broadband | Rajan Raheja Group |
| DEN Networks | Reliance Industries |
| Hathway | Reliance Industries |
| RailTel | Government of India |
| Sify | Sify Group |
| Tata Communications | Tata Group |
| Tata Play | Tata Group (70%) The Walt Disney Company India (30%) |
| Excitel | Excitel Broadband Pvt. Ltd. |
| Provider | Ownership |
|---|---|
| CtrlS Datacenters Ltd | CtrlS Labs Limited |
| ERNET | Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology |
| GAILTEL | Government of India |
| National Knowledge Network (for educational institutions only) | Government of India |
| PowerGrid (PowerTel) | Government of India |
| Tulip Telecom | Tulip Enterprises |
| Name | Headquarters | Type |
|---|---|---|
| Beetel | Gurgaon | Private |
| C-DOT | New Delhi | State-owned enterprise |
| HFCL | New Delhi | Private |
| Sasken Technologies | Bangalore | Private |
| Sterlite Technologies | Pune | Private |
| Tejas Networks | Bangalore | Private |
| United Telecoms Limited | Bangalore | State-owned enterprise |
India's telecommunication network is the second largest in the world by number of telephone users with over 1.19 billion subscribers as of September 2024. It has one of the lowest call tariffs in the world enabled by multiple large-scale telecom operators and the ensuant hyper-competition between them. India has the world's second largest Internet user-base with over 949.21 million broadband internet subscribers as of September 2024.
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited is an Indian central public sector undertaking, under the ownership of Department of Telecommunications, which is part of the Ministry of Communications, Government of India with its headquarters in New Delhi, India. The central public sector undertaking was established on 1 October 2000 by the Government of India. Its highest official is designated as Chairperson and Managing Director, who is a central civil service group 'A' gazetted officer from Indian Communication Finance Service cadre or central engineering service group 'A' gazetted officer from Indian Telecommunication Service cadre. It provides mobile voice and internet services through its nationwide telecommunications network across India. It is the largest government-owned-wireless telecommunications service provider in India.
Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited. Headquartered in New Delhi, India. MTNL Provides services in the metro cities of Mumbai and New Delhi in India and in the island nation of Mauritius in Africa. It had a monopoly in Mumbai and New Delhi until 1992, when the telecom sector was opened to other service providers. "एमटीएनएल है, तो सही है" {"MTNL hai to sahi hai"} & "Transparency makes us different" is its motto. As of May 2024, it has 1.92 million subscribers.
Bharti Airtel Limited is an Indian multinational telecommunications company based in New Delhi. It operates in 18 countries across South Asia and Africa, as well as the Channel Islands. Currently, Airtel provides 5G, 4G and LTE Advanced services throughout India. Currently offered services include fixed-line broadband, and voice services depending upon the country of operation. Airtel had also rolled out its Voice over LTE (VoLTE) technology across all Indian telecom circles. It is the second largest mobile network operator in India and the third largest mobile network operator in the world. Airtel was named India's 2nd most valuable brand in the first ever Brandz ranking by Millward Brown and WPP plc.
Aircel Ltd. was an Indian mobile network operator headquartered in Mumbai that offered voice and 2G and 3G data services. Maxis Communications held a 74% stake and Sindya Securities and Investments held the remaining 26%. Aircel was founded by Chinnakannan Sivasankaran and commenced operations in Tamil Nadu in 1999. It was once a market leader in Tamil Nadu and had considerable presence in Odisha, Assam and North-East telecom circles. 2G and 3G Services including voice were shut down in all circles after failure of merger talks with Reliance Communications.
Telephone numbers in India are administered under the National Numbering Plan of 2003 by the Department of Telecommunications of the Government of India. The numbering plan was last updated in 2015. The country code "91" was assigned to India by the International Telecommunication Union in the 1960s.
Internet in India began in 1986 and was initially available only to the educational and research community. General public access to the internet in India began on 15 August 1995. By 2023, India had more than 900 million Internet users. It is reported that in 2022 an average mobile Internet consumption in India was 19.5 GB per month and the mobile data usage per month rose from 4.5 exabytes in 2018 to 14.4 exabytes in 2022.
DishTV India is an Indian subscription based satellite television provider based in Noida, Uttar Pradesh with Yes Bank as its biggest stakeholder. DishTV was launched by the Zee Group on 2 October 2003. It ranked #437 and #5 on the list of media companies in Fortune India 500 roster of India's largest corporations in 2011. Dish TV was also voted India's most trusted DTH brand according to the Brand Trust Report 2014, a study conducted by Trust Research Advisory. On 22 March 2018, Dish TV completed a merger with Videocon d2h, creating the largest DTH provider in India at the time of merger and formerly as Siti Networks.
Loop Mobile India Ltd, formerly BPL Mobile Communications, was an Indian mobile network operator.
Videocon Telecommunications Limited, formerly Videocon Mobile Services, was an Indian cellular service provider that offered GSM mobile services in India under the brand name Videocon. The company was a subsidiary of the Videocon Group, and was headquartered at Gurgaon, Haryana. Videocon launched its services on 7 April 2010 in Mumbai. At its peak, Videocon held licences to provide mobile services in 18 out of 22 telecom circles of India. However, Videocon launched commercial services only in 11 out of the 18 circles it held licences in. Following the 2G spectrum case, the Supreme Court cancelled 122 licences issued by the Indian Government in 2008, including 21 licences belonging to Videocon.
In India, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) conducts auctions of licenses for electromagnetic spectrum. India was among the early adopters of spectrum auctions beginning auctions in 1994.
Vodafone India was the Indian subsidiary of UK-based Vodafone Group and was a provider of telecommunications services in India with its operational head office in Mumbai.
Direct-to-Home (DTH) television is a method of receiving satellite television by means of signals transmitted from direct-broadcast satellites. The Government of India (GoI) permitted the reception and distribution of satellite television signals in November 2000. The first DTH service in the country was launched by Dish TV on 2 October 2003. DD Free Dish, the first free DTH service in India, was launched by public broadcaster Prasar Bharati in December 2004.
3G mobile telephony was relatively slow to be adopted globally. In some instances, 3G networks do not use the same radio frequencies as 2G so mobile operators must build entirely new networks and license entirely new frequencies, especially so to achieve high data transmission rates. Other delays were due to the expenses of upgrading transmission hardware, especially for UMTS, whose deployment required the replacement of most broadcast towers. Due to these issues and difficulties with deployment, many carriers delayed acquisition of these updated capabilities.
Airtel India is the second largest provider of mobile telephony and third largest provider of fixed telephony in India, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services. The brand is operated by several subsidiaries of Bharti Airtel, with Bharti Hexacom and Bharti Telemedia providing broadband fixed line services and Bharti Infratel providing telecom passive infrastructure service such as telecom equipment and telecom towers. Currently, Airtel provides 5G, 4G and 4G+ services all over India. Currently offered services include fixed-line broadband, and voice services depending upon the country of operation. Airtel had also rolled out its VoLTE technology across all Indian telecom circles.
Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited is an Indian telecommunications company and a subsidiary of Jio Platforms, headquartered in Navi Mumbai. It operates a national LTE network with coverage across all 22 telecom circles. Jio offers 5G, 4G and 4G+ services all over India. Its 6G service is in the works.
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