List of telecom companies in India

This article about wireless, mobile, DTH and internet service providers list and subscriber base in India. There are four wireless operators and 379 internet service providers end of 30 November 2020. [1]

Wireless operators

As of 30 November 2020, there are 1155.20 million wireless subscribers including inactive users in India according to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).[1]

Mobile operators

Market share of mobile telecom operators in India as of 30 November 2020 according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).[1]

  Jio (35.34%)

  Airtel (28.97%)

  Vi (25.10%)

  BSNL (10.59%)

	Operator	Technology	Subscribers[1] (millions)	Active Users	Ownership
1	Jio	850(B5)/1800(B3)/2300(B40) LTE, TD-LTE, FD-LTE, LTE-A VoLTE, ViLTE, VoWiFi[2] WiFi	408.29[1]	324.78[3][4]	Jio Platforms
2	Airtel	GSM - 900/1800 (EDGE), GPRS 900(B8)/1800(B3)/2100(B1)/2300(B40) LTE, TD-LTE, FD-LTE, LTE-A VoLTE, ViLTE, VoWiFi[5] WiFi	334.66[1][6]	323.39[1][6]	Bharti Airtel Limited
3	Vi	GSM - 900/1800 (EDGE), GPRS 900(B8)/1800(B3)/2100(B1)/2300(B40)/2500(B41) LTE, TD-LTE, FD-LTE, LTE-A[7] VoLTE,[8] ViLTE WiFi[9],VoWiFi [10]	289.95[1]	258.07[1] [11]	Vodafone Idea Limited
4	BSNL Mobile	GSM - 900/1800 (EDGE), GPRS 2100(B1) LTE, TD-LTE, FD-LTE, LTE-A VoLTE[12] WiMAX, WiFi,	122.28[1]	62.17	Government of India

Defunct operators

Operator	Started Operations	Ceased Operations	Fate
Modi Telstra	1990		Merged into Axiata Spice Communications [13]
Hutch Essar	1999 Acquired BPL Mobile	2007	Bought by Vodafone Group
Axiata Spice Communications	1992	2008	Merged into Idea Cellular [14]
S Tel	2008	2012	Licence cancelled by the Supreme Court of India
Etisalat	2010 [15]	2012	Licence cancelled by the Supreme Court of India [16]
Loop Mobile	1995	2014	Ceased operations after expiration of licence [17]
Virgin Mobile India, T24 Mobile	2009 [18]	2015	Merged into Tata Docomo [19]
Videocon Telecom	2010 [20]	2016	Shut down following sale of spectrum to Bharti Airtel [21][22]
MTS India	2009	2017	Acquired by Reliance Communications [23]
Idea Cellular	2002	2018	Merged with Vodafone India to form Vi [24][25]
Vodafone India	2011	2018	Merged with Idea Cellular to form Vi [24][25]
Aircel	1999	2018	Bankrupt [26]
Telenor India	2009	2018	Acquired by Bharti Airtel [27]
Tata Docomo	2009	2019	Acquired by Bharti Airtel [28]
Reliance Communications	2002	2019	Bankrupt [29]
Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited	1986	2020	Subsidiary of BSNL until merger is complete [30][31]

Timeline of operators

Virgin Mobile / T24

↓Tata DoCoMo acquired Virgin Mobile in 2015

Tata DoCoMo

Telenor India

Videocon Telecom

↓2016

↓2018

↓2019

Bharti Airtel

 

Hutch Essar

Vodafone India

↓

Vodafone Idea ( Vi )

↑

Idea Cellular

↑Idea Cellular acquired Spice Communications in 2008

Spice Communications

↑Modi Telestra was merged into Spice Telecom in 2000

Modi Telestra

 

Reliance Jio

 

│

1995

│

2001

│

2007

│

2013

│

2019

BPL / Loop Mobile

Aircel

Reliance Communications

↑RCom. acquired MTS India in 2017

MTS India

S Tel

Etisalat

Direct-to-home (DTH) operators

As of 30 September 2020, there are 70.70  million active pay DTH subscribers in addition to free to air state owned Dth(dd free dish) in the country according to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).[32]

Market share of pay DTH operators in India as of September 2020 according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).[33]

  Tata Sky (32.58%)

  Dish TV (27.00%)

  Airtel Digital TV (24.59%)

  Sun Direct (15.83%)

Rank	Operator	Subscribers (Millions)	Ownership
1	DD Free Dish	30.03[34][35]	Prasar Bharati
2	Tata Sky	23.03[32][36]	Tata Sons (60%) The Walt Disney Company (30%) Temasek Holdings (10%)[37]
3	Dish TV (Zing Digital) (d2h)[38][39][40]	19.09[32][39]	Zee Entertainment Enterprises (100%)
4	Airtel digital TV	17.39[32][41]	Bharti Airtel Limited (100%)
5	Sun Direct	11.19[32]	Sun Network (80%) Astro Group (20%)

Notes

• DD free dish is Free To air Service hence their subscriber data is not shown in TRAI performance report.[32]
• On 22 March 2018, Dish TV merged with d2h, creating the largest DTH provider in India at that time.[38]

Wireline operators

Fixedline operators

As of 30 November 2020, there are 20.07 million wireline subscribers in India according to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).[1]

Market share of FixedLine telecom operators in India as of 30 November 2020 according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).[1]

  BSNL (51.86%)

  Airtel (22.51%)

  Jio (12.55%)

  Tata Teleservices (8.29%)

  Vi (2.60%)

  Reliance Communications (1.21%)

  Quadrant (0.98%)

	Operator	Subscribers (millions)	Ownership
1	BSNL[42]	10.40	Government of India
2	Airtel	4.51	Bharti Airtel
3	Jio	2.52	Jio Platforms
4	Tata Teleservices	1.66	Tata Group
5	Vi	0.52	Vodafone Idea Limited
6	Reliance Communications	0.24	Reliance ADAG
7	Quadrant	0.19	Quadrant Infotech India Pvt. Ltd

Multiple-system operators (MSOs)

As of 1 January 2016, there are 415 MSOs (some also have an ISP license).[43]

• A.Ptv Network
• Advanced Multisystem Broadband Communication Pvt. Ltd
• Alliance Broadband Services Pvt. Ltd.
• RCCNetwork Cable & Broadband services
• Arasu Cable
• Arkays Digital Media Cable
• Asianet Satellite Communications Limited
• Atria Convergence Technologies
• Barasat Cable TV Network Pvt. Ltd
• CableComm Services Pvt. Ltd
• ChandparaCable TV Network Ltd
• Channel 3
• Darshan Pooja Cable TV Network
• DEN Networks
• Dew Shree Network
• Digi Maharaja Cable Network
• DIGICON
• DL GTPL Cabnet Pvt. Ltd
• Dolly Cable Network
• DWL - Digital Space Link
• Fastway Transmissions Pvt. Ltd.[44]
• Gujarat Telelink P Limited (GTPL)
• Hathway
• Home Cable Network Pvt Limited
• ICE TV Pvt
• IndusInd Media & Communication Ltd (IMCL)
• JAK Communications
• JPR Channel
• Kailash Cable Network P Ltd
• Kal Cables Pvt. Ltd
• Kerala Communicators Cable Ltd
• Kolkata Cable & Broadband Pariseva Ltd
• Link Entertainment (Howrah Cable)
• Live Satellite
• Mahalakshmi Digital Cable (MLC Communications)
• Manthan Digital/Manthan Broadband Services Pvt Ltd
• Marine BizTV
• Mohit Cable Vision
• NXT Digital (Hinduja-HITS network)
• Ortel Communications
• Prem Channels Pvt Ltd
• Ravi Cable Network
• Ramtek City Cable Network
• Rupnarayan Cable & Broadband Services Pvt Ltd
• Reliance Digicom (ex Digicable)
• RVR Infra
• VBNL{VISION BHARAT BROADCAST DIGITAL CABLE TV BROADBAND NETWORK PRIVATE LIMITED}
• Sanjay Cable Network Pvt Ltd
• Satellite Vision Cable TV & Broadband Services
• Satellite Vision Pvt Limited
• SCV
• Seven Star Dot Com Pvt Ltd
• Silver Line Broadband Services P Ltd
• Siti Cable (Siti Network Limited)
• Siti Vision Digital Media
• Spectra Net Ltd
• Star Broadband Services (India) P Ltd
• STV Network
• TACTV
• UCN Cable Network Pvt. Ltd
• Universal Communication System
• You Telecom
• Viom Networks

Internet service providers (ISPs)

There were 379 internet service providers (ISPs) offering broadband and narrow band internet services; top 5 services constituted 98.84% market share of the total 742.06 million Broadband and narrow band subscribers according to Trai.[1]

Market share of FixedLine telecom operators in India as of 30 September 2020 according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).[45]

  Jio (55.27%)

  Airtel (23.51%)

  Vi (10.30%)

  BSNL (3.52%)

  Atria Convergence (0.24%)

  Others (1.16%)

	Operator	Subscribers (millions)	Ownership
1	Jio	410.17	Jio Platforms
2	Airtel	174.47	Bharti Airtel
3	Vi	120.97	Vodafone Idea Limited
4	BSNL	26.13	Government of India
5	Atria Convergence	1.76	Atria Convergence

The following table shows the top 7 ISPs in India by total subscriber base as of 31 March 2020. Broadband is defined as "an always-on Internet connection with download speed of 512 kbit/s or above." The number of internet users are 743.19 million, out of which 55.75 million are narrow band subscribers and 687.44 million are broadband subscribers.[32]

Rank	Provider	Subscribers (Narrowband) (millions)	Subscribers (Broadband) (millions)	Subscribers (Total) (millions)	Ownership
1	Reliance Jio	0	388.39	388.39	Jio Platforms
2	Airtel	27.11	148.57	175.68	Bharti Airtel Limited
3	Vi [Note2 1][46]	22.03 [Note2 1]	118.23 [Note2 1]	140.26 [Note2 1]	Vodafone Idea Limited
4	BSNL [Note1 1][42]	6.57 [Note2 2][42]	25.36 [Note2 2][42]	31.93 [Note2 2][42]	Government of India
5	ACT Fibernet	0	1.61	1.61	TA Associates
6	Hathway	0	0.97	0.97	Reliance Industries Limited
7	GTPL Broadband Pvt. Ltd.	0	0.36	0.36	Reliance Industries Limited

Other notable ISPs

Provider	Ownership
APSFL	Government of Andhra Pradesh
Asianet Broadband	Rajan Raheja Group
DEN Networks	Reliance Industries
Kerala Vision	KCCL
RailTel Corporation of India	Government of India
Sify	Sify Group
Spectranet	Shyam Telecom Limited
Tata Communications	Tata Group (45%) Government of India (35%)
Tata Sky	Tata Sons (60%) Walt Disney Company (30%) Temasek Holdings (10%)
Tikona Infinet Limited	Goldman Sachs (40.1%)

For enterprise/wholesale only

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	Government of India
Tulip Telecom	Tulip Enterprises

Notes

1. On 28 February 2018 Aircel filed for bankruptcy with NCLT and a substantial number of customers have migrated to other service providers due to closing down of most of the consumer services.[47][48]
2. The services of Telenor India have been merged with Airtel on 14 May 2018.[49]
3. On 31 August 2018, Vodafone India has been merged with Idea Cellular to form Vi.
4. The consumer mobile businesses of Tata Docomo, Tata Teleservices (TTSL) and Tata Teleservices Maharashtra Limited (TTML) have been merged into Bharti Airtel from 1 July 2019.

Telecom R&D firms

Name	Headquarters
MYMO Wireless	Bangalore
Sasken Technologies	Bangalore
Tejas Networks	Bangalore
Sterlite Technologies	Pune

See also

• Telecommunications in India
• List of mobile network operators
• Direct-to-home television in India
• List of mobile network operators of the Asia Pacific region
• Internet in India

Notes

1. BSNL and MTNL merger approved by Government of India.

1. After adding subscribers of You Broadband Because it is subsidiary of Vi.
2. After adding subscribers of MTNL to BSNL, because MTNL will merge with BSNL.

References

[50]

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3. https://www.totaltele.com/507461/Reliance-Jio-boasts-huge-subscriber-base-but-just-how-many-are-active-users
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6. https://trai.gov.in/sites/default/files/PR_No.84of2020.pdf}
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Hutch BPL Mobile formalise merger

External links

• ISP market share grouped by ASNs used (APNIC report)
• List of ASNs assigned to India
• DoT website
• List of Telecom Service Providers on TRAI website
• Department of Telecommunications, Government of India
• Telecom Regulatory Authority of India
• Cellular Operators Association of India
• Wireless Planning & Coordination Wing
• List of Telecom Service Providers on TRAI website