Srinagar: Despite all odds at the economic activity front owing to COVID19, in an interesting trend, Jammu and Kashmir has witnessed a mobile subscriber growth of 15 to 20 per cent in the last 5 years.
This growth curve, which started its upward trajectory in 2017 is quite significant as the UT had a total of 9573852 mobile subscribers in 2016.
This erosion of mobile subscriber base was after it lost a huge chunk of subscribers to a long communication shutdown in 2016.
As per Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), J&K registered 11800904 mobile subscribers at the end of December 2021, which is a major increase than 10428635 mobile subscribers registered in September 2017.
“More than 60 per cent contribution to the total subscriber base of J&K is from Kashmir. On any given day Kashmir is a lucrative telecom hub,” said an executive of a private mobile company.
In 2016, J&K lost almost 4.5 lakh active subscribers during suspension of mobile and internet services.
However, the growth witnessed a spurt as this region added 2,01,879 subscribers in March 2017.
In the past, the bulk of the erosion in mobile customer base in the UT had taken place from the pre-paid users as according to Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), the pre-paid mobile users formed 92.73 per cent of the total subscribers in 2016. However, there has been a spurt in the post-paid connections in the last 4 to 5 years,- thanks to people opting for multiple sim cards.
As per TRAI data, J&K recorded 87.51 teledensity in December last year, which as per experts is an encouraging sign. Teledensity is calculated as the number of phone connections per hundred people of a region or state.
However, multiple connections with one subscriber can be a reason for this deep penetration.J&K is not a heavily populated state but stillfast growing in terms of new mobile connections, said experts.
It may be mentioned that in February 2018, telco Aircel which had 34 lakh subscriber base in Jammu and Kashmir had shut down its operations here. However, the entry of Reliance Jio lead to its market dominance and popularity.