With a marginal growth in April, India crosses 1 billion active mobile connections mark

India's active mobile connection has made a jump of about 1.25 per cent in the month of April in compare to March.

Now the total number of active mobile connections are 1010 million for the above mentioned month, according to data released by TRAI. In March it stood at 997 million.

Airtel, Idea, Reliance Jio and Vodafone accounting for 91 per cent of total active mobile connections in the country. Among mobile networks, Reliance Jio added 9.6 million connections in April, taking its connection base to 196 million.

Whereas Idea and Airtel together added 10 million connections in April.

In terms of the number of active connections, Airtel leads with 328.23 million connections, followed by Vodafone at 211.86 million connections. Airtel is highest among all telcos followed by Idea and Vodafone.

State-wise, West Bengal has 95.34 per cent active connections, highest among states including Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh.

Uttar Pradesh east showed most number of connections with 99.23 million connections followed by Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, which had 94.9 million and 84.2 million connections respectively.

Bharti Airtel holds the maximum percentage market share of wireless connections at 27%, followed by Vodafone at 20 per cent, Idea at 19 per cent, Reliance Jio at 17 per cent and BSNL at 10%.

Along with Jio, the top four including Vodafone, Airtel and Idea, now account for 91% of active connections.

TRAI in its earlier report said Reliance Communications, Tata Teleservices, Telenor, Aircel and MTS, were biggest losers in market share in 2017. Airtel and Vodafone had a growth rate of 9.13 per cent and 3.83 per cent respectively, whereas Idea had 3.14 per cent growth rate.

Besides Airtel, Vodafone and Idea witnessed downfall in revenue and profitability substantially, leading to about 19 per cent decline in the industry’s adjusted gross revenue (AGR).

Last year, the average revenue per user (ARPU) per month in the industry declined to Rs 81.39 against Rs 118.65 in 2016. Jio’s ARPU was the highest at Rs 137. Airtel’s ARPU was Rs 116 whereas Idea’s was Rs 105.