Tag: mobile data

  • India Telecom Base Hits 1.35 Billion as 5G Fixed Wireless Expands

    India Telecom Base Hits 1.35 Billion as 5G Fixed Wireless Expands

    India’s total telephone subscriber base expanded by 6.20 million connections in July 2026 to reach 1.35 billion, according to data from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.

    Monthly growth of 0.46 per cent lifted overall wireless subscriptions to 1.31 billion, while wireline connections ticked up 0.39 per cent to 48.01 million. National wireless tele-density crossed a key threshold, rising from 89.71 per cent in June to 90.04 per cent. Urban mobile connections climbed 0.57 per cent during the month, outpacing rural mobile subscriber growth of 0.24 per cent.

    Concentration in broadband access

    Broadband lines reached 1.094 billion at the end of July, up from 1.09 billion in June. Mobile wireless remains the primary access route for consumers, representing 1.03 billion connections after growing 0.59 per cent. Fixed wired lines rose 0.90 per cent to 48.14 million.

    Five operators control 98.59 per cent of the broadband market. Reliance Jio retained the lead with 535.12 million subscribers, followed by Bharti Airtel at 384.23 million. Vodafone Idea held third place with 129.96 million users, while state-run BSNL and Atria Convergence Technologies followed with 27.28 million and 2.47 million connections, respectively.

    Rural adoption of 5G fixed wireless

    Fixed wireless access outpaced traditional connectivity categories, climbing 2.60 per cent month-on-month to 18.84 million lines. Within that segment, 5G-based fixed wireless subscriptions reached 13.21 million, up from 12.94 million in June after adding 272,820 connections.

    Rural households accounted for 50.31 per cent of all 5G fixed wireless connections, slightly ahead of the 49.69 per cent recorded across urban centers. The split indicates that operators are relying on wireless broadband to bypass physical fiber bottlenecks outside major metropolitan areas.

    Subscriber switching remained high across the country, with 15.98 million users submitting mobile number portability requests in July. Uttar Pradesh East generated the highest churn volume with 2.29 million porting requests, followed by Uttar Pradesh West at 1.55 million.

  • India’s mobile data service revenue to record 14.7% CAGR over next five years

    India’s mobile data service revenue to record 14.7% CAGR over next five years

    Mobile data service revenue in India is expected to rise from US$6.3bn in 2020 to US$12.5bn in 2025 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14.7% driven by the continued rise in smartphone subscriptions and the subsequent surge in mobile data consumption, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

    GlobalData’s India Mobile Broadband Forecast reveals that mobile Internet subscription penetration will increase from an estimated 47.3% in 2020 to 81.4% by the end of 2025 owing to heavy investment in telecom network development across remote areas in the country.

    The average monthly data usage is forecast to increase from 9.2 GB in 2020 to about 14.7 GB in 2025 accelerated by the increase in the consumption of bandwidth-heavy services like mobile video and social media on the mobile networks.

    Kantipudi Pradeepthi, Research Analyst of Telecoms Market Data & Intelligence at GlobalData, comments: “4G will remain the leading technology in terms of subscriptions in India through the forecast period while 2G will see its subscription share fall from 36.5% in 2020 to 3.5% by year-end 2025. Moreover, Airtel & Vodafone Idea plan to shut down 3G services and use the infrastructure to improve 4G connectivity.

    “Reliance Jio led the mobile services market in India in terms of mobile subscriptions in 2020, followed by Airtel and Vodafone Idea. Reliance Jio will retain its leading position through 2025, driven by its continuous expansion of 4G network and promotional discount offers.”

  • Singapore offers best mobile experience in South East Asia

    Singapore offers best mobile experience in South East Asia

    At a country-level, Singapore won in all metrics tested, with the most important win being the highest Excellent Consistent Quality in South East Asia, with 84.5% of connections having a network experience suitable for use-cases like 1080p video streaming, real-time mobile gaming and HD video calling. Singapore also had the highest Core Consistent Quality in the region at 94.4%.

    Consistent Quality is a set of metrics that Tutela has developed to objectively evaluate when connections are (or are not) enabling users to do the things they want to on their mobile devices. There are two sets of thresholds, Excellent and Core. A connection that hits the Excellent threshold is sufficient for use-cases like 1080p video streaming, HD video calling, and multiplayer gaming, while a Core connection should be sufficient to stream standard-definition video or handle day-to-day activities like web browsing or uploading photos to social media. The percentages seen in this report represent the percentage of tests for subscribers on a given operator that was above the Excellent or Core thresholds.

    Singapore also had the fastest download speed at 26.2 Mbps, the fastest upload speed at 14.7 Mbps, and the most responsive network with a latency result of 9.0 ms. However, Vietnam was always very close behind, with second-place winnings for both Excellent Consistent Quality (72.3%) and Core Consistent Quality (86.1%).

    The report was released by Tutela Technologies, a global crowdsourced mobile data company, and evaluated over 55 million speed and latency tests, conducted on the smartphones of real-world users of national mobile operators within Common Coverage Areas, between August 1st and January 31st, 2021.

    Per country findings were as follows:

    Singapore:

    • By operator in Singapore, StarHub dominated in four of the seven metrics tested, including the highest Excellent Consistent Quality with 87.3% of users having a network experience suitable for 1080p video streaming or HD group video calling.
    • StarHub also had the highest Core Consistent Quality, Tutela’s measure of whether a connection is good enough for everyday uses, like email, social media, and SD video streaming, the fastest download speeds, and the most responsive network in the country.

    Indonesia:

    • Telkomsel won six out of the seven metrics tested, with Indosat Ooredoo being the only other operator to make it onto the leaderboard in Indonesia with the fastest median upload speed.
    • Telkomsel was in first place for Excellent Consistent Quality with 65.0%, and also in first for Core Consistent Quality with 83.5%. However, there was only a 3% difference between the operator and second-place Indosat Ooredoo.

    Malaysia:

    • In Malaysia, the leaderboard was shared by at least four operators, with U Mobile offering its users the best mobile experience in the country. The operator won the highest Excellent and Core Consistent Quality, and fastest upload speed.
    • Digi had the fastest median download speed in Common Coverage Areas across Malaysia with 10.6 Mbps but came third in the upload speed test with 6.2 Mbps. Maxis had the most responsive network in the country, while Celcom had both the best 5G/4G coverage and total coverage.

    Thailand:

    • By operator in Thailand, AIS won in four of the seven categories tested, including the highest Excellent Consistent Quality and most responsive network. However, TrueMove was also on the leaderboard in three of the seven categories including the highest Core Consistent Quality and both the fastest download and upload speeds.
    • With only two operators in the Philippines to compare, Smart outperformed Globe in six out of the seven categories tested, with Globe taking out one category with the best total coverage.

    Vietnam:

    • Viettel Mobile in Vietnam offered the best mobile experience to its users, winning in five categories and tying for first place with Vinaphone for fastest median download speeds.
    • MobiFone was on the leaderboard in one category with the highest Core Consistent Quality.
  • Telstra to launch unlimited mobile data plan

    Telstra to launch unlimited mobile data plan

    Australia’s Telstra will tomorrow launch Australia’s first unlimited smartphone-based mobile data plan, although the “unlimited” plan is subject to a data cap at 40GB.

    The new A$69 ($52) Telstra Endless Data BYO plans also come with unlimited talk, text and MMS to standard domestic numbers as well as unlimited Wi-Fi data at Telstra’s network of Telstra Air hotspots.

    Data will be uncapped up to 40GB, after which speeds will be limited to 1.5Mbps, and lower during peak hours. The plan is also subject to Telstra’s fair use policy, Telstra said.

    Telstra boasts a 4G population coverage of more than 99% with a 3G coverage of 99.4%. The company’s 4G network covers a landmass area of 1.6 million square kilometers.

    To further augment its coverage, Telstra has also announced the launch of a new intelligent antenna solution designed to improve mobile coverage or provide coverage to most places it is unavailable.

    The Telstra Go Repeater is available in a stationary version designed for residential and commercial premises, as well as a portable version designed to improve coverage in a road or sea vehicle.

    It works by receiving mobile signals through an external antenna and then enhancing and re-transmitting this signal to a single indoor or in vehicle antenna. The repeater operates on Telstra’s 3G and 4G networks, including its “4GX” LTE-Advanced network.

  • Price war in Singapore over mobile data

    Price war in Singapore over mobile data

    A price war has erupted in Singapore for the first time in four years, as operators seek to stay competitive by lifting their data allowances.

    SingTel recently introduced a new add-on plan giving customers the option of doubling their mobile data allowance for an extra S$5.90 per month.

    Both M1 and StarHub quickly followed suit, with M1 introducing a similar option to SingTel and StarHub offering an extra 3GB of mobile data for a promotional rate of S$3 per month, rising to S$6 from April.

    The offers mean the operators have effectively halved their mobile plan charges in some cases. The biggest discounts are for more high-end plans.

    The cuts follow the ISP seeking to become Singapore’s fourth mobile operator, that it plans to charge as little as S$8 for a mobile plan with 2GB of data, with value added services charged at market rates.

    MyRepublic also plans to offer an unlimited data plan for S$80 per month. The incumbent operators currently do not offer unlimited data options.