Over 100% surge in rural internet users in Nagaland in last 2 years

May 18, 2024 27 Views No Comment

Moa Jamir
Dimapur | May 18

An over 100% surge in rural users has resulted in a substantial increase in internet subscribers in Nagaland during the two years, reflected the analysis of periodic performance indicator reports published by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

According to the latest quarterly report of the ‘Indian Telecom Services Performance Indicators (October–December 2023) published in April, there were 1.65 million internet subscribers in Nagaland.

Of the 1.65 million subscribers, a total of 0.97 million were in rural areas while there were 0.67 million in urban areas.

This is an increase from the 1.58 million subscriber base in March 2023 (2022-23 annual report).

However, the increase is substantial if one looks at the figures for December 2021 when, for the first time, separate data for all North-East States, including Nagaland was present instead of the overall regional data.

During that period, the total internet subscribers in the State were hovering around 0.86 million.

Out of these, there were 0.48 million rural subscribers while there were 0.37 million urban users.

The rural subscribers had increased to 0.93 million by March 2023, or by around 93.75%. By December 2023, the number surged to 0.97 million or by over 102% in rural areas, since December 2021.

This represents an increase from 480,000 subscribers in December 2021 to 970,000 in December 2023, or an increase of 490,000 in absolute terms.

Likewise, from December 2021 to March 2023, internet subscribers in urban areas increased by 75.68%, from 0.37 million to 0.65 million. By December 2023, a total of 200,000 subscribers had been added, taking the figure to 0.67 million.

Accordingly, in absolute terms, the total internet subscribers in Nagaland by December 2023 were around 1,650,000, up from around 860,000 in December 2021.

Consequently, during the same period, the tele-density (%) or internet subscribers per 100 population increased from 38.83% to 73.30%.

In rural areas, the tele-density nearly tripled from 39.26% to 81.78%, while in urban areas, it increased from 38.27% to 63.75%.
Overall, the total number of telephone subscribers in Nagaland was 1.70 million in December 2023, out of which 1.67 million were wireless and 0.3 million were wireline subscribers.

The overall tele-density was 75.39% in Nagaland against 85.23% nationally.

In Nagaland, the rural-urban in divide in overall tele-density was not much visible at 73.68% and 77.30% respectively, while the all-India average was more pronounced at 58.26%for rural and 133.76% in urban areas.

Meanwhile, the total number of internet subscribers in India increased from 918.19 million at the end of September 2023 to 936.16 million at the end of December 2023, registering a quarterly growth rate of 1.96%.

Out of 936.16 million internet subscribers, the number of Wired Internet subscribers was 38.57 million, and the number of Wireless Internet subscribers was 897.59 million.

Source: https://morungexpress.com/over-100-surge-in-rural-internet-users-in-nagaland-in-last-2-years