India had 525.4 million wireless and wireline broadband connections at the end of December 2018, an increase of 9% over a three month period starting from September 2018, according to data published by the telecom regulator TRAI. Note that there are still 78.85 million narrowband connections in the country, a number which has been on the decline, possibly as more people switch to broadband from narrowband.
However, for this quarter narrowband connections grew marginally from 78.3 million connections of September 2018.
The total: 604.2 million Internet connections, including both wireline and wireless connections, broadband and narrowband. A majority of these Internet connections are on mobile.
Between October and December 2018, total broadband connections in rural India grew by 12%, and by 7% in urban areas. TRAI defines Internet connections with download speeds less than 512 kbps as narrowband, while connections with download speeds faster than 512 kbps are broadband. Broadband connections were the majority in India with an 87% share, while narrowband connections comprised the remaining 13% connections.
It’s worth noting that the TRAI had recommended redefining the minimum broadband speed to 2 Mbps.
Some observations:
1. Delhi had the highest number of broadband connections in urban areas with 31.15 million, followed by Tamil Nadu with 29.49 million, and Maharashtra with 28.74 million connections.
2. Bihar had the highest number of broadband connections in rural areas with 16.24 million, followed by Andhra Pradesh with 16.1 million connections, and UP(East) with 15.6 million connections.
3. Overall, Maharashtra (excluding Mumbai) had the highest number of broadband connections in the country with 44.24 million connections. Andhra Pradesh is at the second spot with 41.46 million connections, followed by Tamil Nadu with 39.13 million connections.
4. Broadband connections in hilly states such as Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and the North East including Assam are still very low with a total of just 24.88 million connections between them.
5. Madhya Pradesh added the highest number of broadband connections in rural areas with 1.98 million connections between July and September 2018. In urban areas, Madhya Pradesh topped the list again by adding 3.35 million connections during the same time period.
6. Overall, Madhya Pradesh added the most connections during the three-month period with 5.3 million connections.
