Country's Telecom Sector Has Been Shrinking In The Last 2 Years, Reveals TRAI Data

The country's telecom sector is going through the most difficult phase. Once a dozen companies were active in this sector, but now broadly only three companies are — Reliance Jio, Airtel and Vodafone. 

The latest data from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, ie TRAI, shows that the sector is shrinking rather than growing. According to the data, there were a total of 1206.66 million subscribers in the country in March 2018 which decreased to 1177.97 million in March 2020. These figures indicate that in the last two years, teledensity has decreased in the country. Teledensity means how many telephone connections every 100 people have.

According to TRAI, the overall teledensity in March 2018 was 91.09 percent, which has come down to 87.37 percent in March 2020. That is a drop of 3.42 percent. There has been a further decline in teledensity in cities. Statistics show that while urban teledensity was 161.17 percent in March 2018, it has come down to 142.1 percent in March 2020. That is the fall of 19.07 percent.

This decline has also been observed in villages. While rural teledensity was 59.05 percent in March 2018, it declined to 58.79 percent in March 2020. These figures clearly show that the telecom sector is shrinking in the same country where the telecom revolution took place a few years ago. Vodafone and Airtel, both these companies have already said that if the government does not take steps to revive the telecom sector soon, then they will have to pack their bags and leave.