THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala has the highest rural teledensity in the country with 2.23 connections per person. Rural teledensity in the state is 222.86% against the national average of 57.71%, according to a Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) report.
The state’s total teledensity is 122.16% against the national average of 84.51%, the report released on August 21, 2023 says.
Total number of subscriptions in Kerala stands at 4.36 crore — 1.95 crore in rural areas and 2.41 crore in urban areas. Goa has the second highest rural teledensity at 219.63%, followed by Sikkim 157.40%.
“Kerala has a thin rural-urban divide and the rural folks largely enjoy the same financial status of their urban counterparts. The intense rural penetration of the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has a big role in the higher level of teledensity,” says S Jyothi Sankar, former principal general manager of the BSNL Kerala Circle.
People keep more than one connection for different reasons like call connectivity, internet or data backup. The trend became popular with the subscription charges becoming cheaper, he added.
However, 2023 marked the worst year for BSNL in Kerala as its mobile phone subscription base fell under the 10 million subscribers mark for the first time.
TRAI’s monthly subscription data for May 2023 showed that the public sector telco was in the third position in terms of customer base. Topper Vodafone Idea had 1.42 crore subscriptions, followed by Reliance Jio, 1.01 crore, BSNL, 97.19 lakh and Bharti Airtel 80.45 lakh.
‘BSNL one of the biggest victims of MNP service’
BSNL’s customer base showed a steady decline from 1.09 crore in May 2019 to 1.04 crore in May 2022 and 97 lakh this year. A range of issues from call drop to lack of 4G services are cited as reasons for the downfall of the BSNL.
“Telecom sector is witnessing fierce competition and unfortunately BSNL has not risen to customer’s expectations. While private players have started offering 5G, BSNL is yet to offer 4G across the state. We are one of the biggest victims of Mobile Number Portability (MNP) service,” said a BSNL officer who did not want to be named.
The public sector telco still retains monopoly over wireline subscriptions.
As of May 2023, the state had 13.89 lakh subscriptions of which BSNL’s share was 10.11 lakh.