You want to travel somewhere – you can call a cab from your smartphone. You need to invest money – you can do that from your smartphone. Pick almost any necessity in everyday life and you can achieve that with a smartphone. This is due to the vast and still growing telecommunication industry. Being the second-largest Internet consumer in the world, telecommunication companies in India are on a roll, coming up with more attractive data plans and lucrative schemes which makes Internet usage more accessible than ever.
Telecommunication Sector and the Top 10 Telecommunication Companies in India
Globally, India is the second-largest telecommunication market, with approximately 1.2 million users as of August 2019. With an average data consumption of 9.8 GB per month, it has the highest percentage of data usage per smartphone as compared to the rest of the world. This is expected to double by the year 2024. Due to this rapid rise in the telecom industry over the decade, telecommunication companies in India are fiercely competing with each other to capture more market space and retain the existing customer base. Hence, we can see revolutionary services being offered at nominal rates.
List of the Top 10 Telecommunication Companies in India
Here are the details of the top 10 telecom companies in India.
1. Airtel
One of the top 10 telecommunication companies in India, Bharti Airtel, popularly known as Airtel is a global telecommunication services company that operates in 18 countries. Based in Delhi, India, Airtel provides a wide range of mobile services like GSM, 3G, 4G LTE, and 4G+.
Founded by the current owner, Sunil Bharti Mittal in 1995, it has seen remarkable growth in its 25 years in business. It was the company that launched 4G in India for the first time and also the first company to reach a 100 million customer base.
Market cap:293,999.99 Cr INR
Address: Bharti Crescent, 1 Nelson Mandela Road, Vasant Kunj, Phase II, New Delhi – 110070, India
Contact information: +91 11 4666 6100
Website:https://www.airtel.in/
2. Jio
Considered by many to be the world’s largest startup with an investment of 1500 billion INR, Reliance Jio also finds it’s placed in the list of top telecommunication companies in India. It is single-handedly responsible for the Telecom Revolution in India by offering free voice calls, zero roaming charges and an array of popular apps like JioTV, JioSaavn, JioCinema at zero subscription charges.
The current owner, Mukesh Ambani founded the company in 2007 as a subsidiary of Reliance Industries and became fully operational in 2016. It is the largest mobile network operator in India.
Market cap:10 trillion INR
Address: Reliance JioInfocomm Ltd., RCP 14 (TC 23 ), Phase 4, B-Block, 3rd Floor, C 4 130 Twane-Belapur Road, Gansoli, Navi Mumbai – 400701, Maharashtra, India
Contact information:+912244787882
Website:https://www.jio.com/
3. Vodafone
A subsidiary of the UK based Vodafone Group, Vodafone India is one of the top 10 telecom companies in India. After merging with Idea, it became one of the largest telecom services company in India. Although, a little expensive as compared to the other telecom companies, it provides one of the best network coverage and high-speed data.
Vodafone Group acquired the Hutchison-Essar business in India completely by 2007 and merged with Idea Cellular in 2017. It offers mobile services such as GSM, 3G, and 4G LTE.
Market cap:14,913.67 Cr INR
Address: Vodafone India Limited, Peninsula Corporate Park, Ganpatrao Kadam Marg, Lower Parel, Mumbai – 400013, Maharashtra, India
Contact information:+912271715000
Website:https://www.vodafone.in/
4. BSNL
The most consistent mobile network in India in terms of coverage, BSNL or Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, formerly known as Cellone, is a government-owned telecommunication company in India. It is one of the most popular telecom network providers due to its cheap tariffs and great accessibility across the Indian terrain. It doesn’t have PAN India 4G rights and also falls short in terms of internet connectivity in comparison to its peer companies.
Started by the Government of India in 2000, BSNL provides mobile, landline and broadband services and the recent Bharat Fiber service in 2019.
Address: Harish Chandra Mathur Lane, Janpath, New Delhi – 110001, India
Contact information:+91 1123372424
Website:https://www.bsnl.co.in/
5. Reliance Communications
Founded by Anil Ambani, the brother of Reliance Jio’s owner Mukesh Ambani, as a separate telecom company in 2004, Reliance Communications offered affordable 2G and 3G services in India. It filed for bankruptcy in 2019.
Market cap:212.95 Cr INR
Address: Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City, H Block, Thane Belapur Road, Koparkhairane, Navi Mumbai – 400710, Maharashtra, India
Contact information:+91 22 3038 6286
Website:https://www.rcom.co.in
6. MTNL
Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) is another government-funded telecom company that offers broadband internet and 3G services in Mumbai and Delhi. As a state-owned entity, MTNL has a user base of approximately 3.62 million subscribers. It also provides services in Mauritius as Mahanagar Telephone Mauritius Limited (MTML).
Market cap: 708.75 Cr INR
Address: MTNL Corporate Office, Mahanagar Door Sanchar Sadan, Room No.4213, Lobby No. 2,4th Floor, (Opp. Gate No. 13, JLN Stadium), 9 CGO Complex, Lodhi Road, New Delhi –110003, India
Contact information:+91 1124328988
Website:http://www.mtnl.net.in/
7. MTS India
Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) India, also known as Sistema ShyamTeleServices is a subsidiary of the Russian Mobile TeleSystems company based in New Delhi. Founded by Dmitry Shukov in 2008, MTS India provides broadband Internet, wireless voice, messaging and data services in 9 circles across India. With a user base of around 9 million subscribers, it prevails primarily in the metro cities across India.
Market cap: 9.52 Cr INR
Address: Sistema ShyamTeleServices Limited, MTS tower, 334, Udyog Vihar, Phase -IV, Gurgaon – 122001, Haryana, India
Contact information:+91 12 44812500
Website:https://www.mts.com/
8. Aircel
Aircel was another telecom service provider which could not keep up with the fiercely competing market. At its helm, it was prevalent mainly in southern and some parts of eastern India, with a huge customer base, owing to its low congestion network at very cheap rates and excellent customer support.
Founded by ChinnakannanSivasankaran in 1999, Aircel provided affordable 3G and 4G services and at a time had a customer base of 90.3 million. It is now defunct due to bankruptcy.
9. Tata DoCoMo
It was one of the subsidiaries of Tata Teleservices in a merger with NTT Docomo of Japan. Although it offered a fair network coverage in cities and towns at cheap rates, it failed in the suburban areas.
It was founded in November 2008 and was acquired by Bharti Airtel in October 2017.
10. Telenor
Telenor (India) Communications Pvt. Ltd. was a mobile network provider and a subsidiary of Telenor Group, a Norwegian telecom company. This company has now merged with Bharti Airtel in February 2017.
