Broadband users have increased in our country as the pandemic has forced companies to ask employees to work from home. Remote working and hybrid cultures have increased the popularity of broadband connections. As subscribers, you would be interested in knowing the facts and figures related to broadband and internet connectivity in our country.

Selectra brings the latest Broadband and internet statistics in India as well as worldwide to you right here.

Number Of People Using The Internet Across The Globe

1. As of 2021, There are 4.66 billion active internet users (Oberlo).
2. Growth rate stands at 7.3 per cent with an internet penetration rate of around 59.5 per cent (data).

Percentage of Internet usage

1. Staying in touch with friends and family (56.6 per cent)
2. Keeping up to date with the latest news and events (55.6 per cent)
3. Watching videos, TV shows, and movies (52.5 per cent).

Location wise Internet Access

1. 24.4 per cent of the world’s internet users are located in East Asia (the region with the largest number of internet users)
2. Followed by South Asia with 17.7 per cent
3. Southeast Asia with 9.9 per cent of the world’s internet users.

Number of Mobile Internet Users Worldwide

• Currently, 4.28 billion unique mobile internet users are there worldwide, which makes 54.6 per cent of the global population
• Out of the 5.2 billion mobile phone owners in the world, more than eight in ten use their phones to access the internet.

Devices used to access the internet

1. Mobile phones account for 50.2 per cent of overall web traffic
2. laptops and computers account for 47.1 per cent
3. tablet devices are used at a 2.6 per cent rate

On average, internet users spend 6 hours and 56 minutes online each day (2021) (Data)

Leading Mobile Internet Browser

Source – counter

1. Google Chrome browser leads with a share of 62.63 per cent
2. Safari is the leader in the mobile internet browsers in the US with a market share of 57.22 per cent followed by Google Chrome at 35.75 per cent.

Source – Interstats

• How Many Websites Are There?
• GoDaddy, hosts 1.76 million registered domains, which makes 16.84 per cent of the web hosting market share.
• Google Cloud Web follows with 10.01 per cent
• AWS Web Hosting enjoys 8.74 per cent.

Users 4G availability in India – December 2020 to February 2021

Source – Statista

1. Reliance’s Jio users ranked first with over 99 per cent 4G availability.
2. Airtel users ranked second
3. BSNL, ranked lowest with only about 61 per cent 4G availability.

4G mobile data usage across India – December 2015 to December 2020

Source – Statista

1. Indians used over 9,640 petabytes of 4G mobile data in December 2020,
2. 6,899 terabytes were used in December 2019.
3. A year-on-year 4G data usage growth – around 40 per cent

5G smartphone purchase intention in India – March 2021

Source – Statista

1. As of March 2021, More than 55 per cent of consumers in India stated that they would purchase 5G smartphones
2. More than 30 per cent would consider buying it

Overview Of Broadband Internet Users

Source – Statista

Take a look at the figures and facts about Broadband users. It is clear from these below-mentioned figures that the internet is fast becoming an essential necessity in all households. This is a fact which holds true across the globe. The pandemic has had a great effect in increasing broadband usage among consumers.

1. India is the second biggest online market in the world, ranking behind China
2. In 2021, India ranks at 77 out of 120 countries for internet availability.
3. As of 2020, there are over 749 million internet users in India
4. By 2040, the expected number of internet users is over 1.5 billion.
5. In 2020, Rural India has over 300 million internet users
6. Urban India has over 335 million internet users
7. By 2025, the number of internet-connected households is expected to be 143.93 million
8. In 2021, the number of mobile broadband connections per 100 inhabitants in India amount to approximately 57.71
9. By 2025, the number of mobile broadband connections per 100 inhabitants in India to reach 72.70
10. Over one billion wireless mobile subscribers across India at the end of 2020
11. The average data consumption per user per month across 3G and 4G networks in India were at 13,462 megabytes in 2020.
12. Reliance Jio enjoys a lead of 52% with more than 410 million subscribers, followed by Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea.

Urban Vs Rural Internet Penetration

1. Over 138 Gram Panchayats have gained access to internet connectivity across India
2. Uttar Pradesh has the maximum connectivity in its rural areas with over 29 thousand internet-equipped gram panchayats, followed by Maharashtra.
3. As of 2020, The Whole country’s Internet penetration stands at around 40 per cent.
4. Delhi has the highest internet penetration of 68 per cent, followed by Kerala at 56 per cent. Odisha has the lowest.

Internet Users-Gender/Age wise

1. 58 per cent of rural users were male, 42 per cent were female.
2. 57 per cent of urban users were male, 43 per cent were female.
3. As of 2019, 54 per cent of Indian internet users were between 20 and 39 years old
4. 14 per cent of users were in the age group 12-15 years

In December 2020, Google.com led the ranking of websites with more than 17 pages daily, YouTube scores second and Primevideo.com has only three pages per day.

Source- Visual

• Top Three Websites (Monthly visits)
• Google: 92.5 billion
• YouTube: 34.6 billion
• Facebook: 25.5 billion
• Twitter.com: 6.6B
• Wikipedia.org: 6.1B
• Instagram.com: 6.1B
• Baidu.com: 5.6B
• Yahoo.com: 3.8B

As of 2021, Facebook’s user base in India comes to around 433.75 million users. By 2025, it is expected to reach 677.34 million users. (Statista)

Overview of Indian Broadband Subscribers

Source – TRAI

1. As per TRAI, Indian Broadband Subscribers (Million) Wireless comes to around 742.84 million, Wireline – 22.26 million with a total of 765.09million as of February 2021.
2. States with low rural internet users out of 100 are Bihar (21.69), Uttar Pradesh (21.64), Jammu & Kashmir (16.58), Madhya Pradesh (23.88), and West Bengal (25).
3. As per Sanjay Dhotre, Minister of State for Communications, Education, and Electronics & Information Technology, as of 31/03/2020, the broadband penetration in rural India is merely 29.2 per cent.

Subscription video-on-demand (SVoD) services across the globe

Source – TRAI

1. In 2021, the penetration rate of subscription video-on-demand (SVoD) services is projected to be around 48 per cent in the United States.
2. The second-highest penetration rate worldwide is from Sweden, at around 40.5 per cent.
3. Canada, Norway, and the United Kingdom penetration rates are projected to rank in third, fourth, and fifth place, with 37.4, 35.8, and 35.5 per cent, respectively.
4. The global penetration rate is to be 14.3 per cent in 2021.

Segment-wise Broadband Subscribers and Monthly Growth Rate in the month of July 2021

Source – TRAI

Broadband subscribers (in million)

1. Wired subscribers on 30th June, 2021 is 23.52, As on 31st July, 2021 is 24.01
2. Mobile devices users (phones and dongles) on 30/06/2021is 768.61, As on 31st July 2021 is 783.39.
3. Fixed Wireless subscribers (Wi-Fi, Wi-Max, Point-to-Point Radio & VSAT) on 30th June, 2021 is 0.65, As on 31st July 2021 is 1.19

The monthly growth rate in the month of July-21

1. Wired subscribers – 2.09%
2. Mobile devices users (phones and dongles) – 1.92%
3. Fixed Wireless subscribers (Wi-Fi, Wi-Max, Point-to-Point Radio & VSAT) – 83.53%

Estimates of total broadband subscribers

The top five service providers contributed to 98.77% market share of the total broadband subscribers by the end of July-21.

1. Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd – 446.68 million
2. Bharti Airtel – 201.77 million
3. Vodafone Idea – 123.97 million
4. BSNL – 24.26 million
5. Atria Convergence – 1.93 million

Service Provider-wise Market Share of Broadband (wired + wireless) Services as of 31st July 2021

Top five Wireless Broadband Service providers

1. Reliance Jio Infocom Ltd (443.61 million)
2. Bharti Airtel (198.23 million)
3. Vodafone Idea (123.97 million)
4. BSNL (17.89 million)
5. Tikona Infinet Ltd (0.31 million)

Top five Wired Broadband Service providers

1. BSNL (5.83 million),
2. Bharti Airtel (3.54 million),
3. Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (3.47 million),
4. Atria Convergence Technologies (1.93 million)
5. Hathway Cable & Datacom (1.07 million).

Leading Broadband Service providers as of 31st July 2021

Percentage representation of the service provider-wise market share of broadband services is given below

1. Reliance Jio – 55.24%
2. Bharti Airtel – 24.95%
3. Vodafone Idea – 15.33%
4. BSNL – 3.00%
5. Atria Convergence – 0.24%
6. Others – 1.23%

Yearly Performance Indicators – Indian Telecom Sector, 2020 (as of Dec 31, 2020)

1. Total Internet Subscribers – 795.18 Million
2. % change over the previous year – 10.64%
3. Narrowband subscribers – 47.77 Million
4. Broadband subscribers – 747.41 Million
5. Wired Internet Subscribers – 25.54 Million
6. Wireless Internet Subscribers – 769.64 Million
7. Urban Internet Subscribers – 487.01 Million
8. Rural Internet Subscribers – 308.17 Million
9. Total Internet Subscribers per 100 population – 58.51 Million
10. Urban Internet Subscribers per 100 population – 103.98 Million
11. Rural Internet Subscribers per 100 population – 34.60 Million

Composition of internet subscription

1. Wired Subscription – 96.77%
2. Fixed Wireless Subscription – 3.15%
3. Mobile Wireless Subscription – 0.08%

Division of internet subscriber base

1. Broadband subscriber base – 778.09 million
2. Narrowband subscriber base – 47.21 million

Facts & Figures about broadband Internet subscriber base in India 2020-2021

1. The broadband Internet subscriber base rises by 4.11% (747.41 million at the end of Dec-20 to 778.09 million as of Mar-21).
2. Monthly Average Revenue per User (ARPU) for wireless service increased by 1.90%, (Rs.101.65 in QE Dec-20 to Rs.103.58 in QE Mar-21).
3. On all India average, the overall Minutes of Usage (MOU) per subscriber per month for wireless service increased by 4.12% (785 in QE Dec-20 to 818 in QE Mar-21).

Conclusion

We can clearly see that the rural areas of our country need more focus with regard to internet connectivity. According to our Government, the reasons for such a disparity are less availability of required infrastructure, low density of internet-savvy population, and shortage of viable business cases in rural areas. Let’s hope the BharatNet project will be successful in reducing the gap between urban-rural internet penetration.