Reliance Jio, Airtel add over 30 lakh subscribers in June; Vodafone Idea loses 37 lakh users

Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel added over 30 lakh wireless subscribers in June, in sharp contrast to Vodafone Idea who lost over 37 lakh active users during the month under review, as per the latest data by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) added 3.88 lakh subscribers during the month, while MTNL lost 5,457 users, the data showed.

The TRAI data showed that total wireless subscribers (2G, 3G and 4G) increased by 34.72 lakh to 114.42 crore in July compared to 114.07 crore in the previous month, registering a monthly growth rate of 0.30 per cent. Monthly wireless subscription growth in urban and rural areas stood at 0.25 per cent and 0.36 per cent, respectively.

Wireless tele-density in India rose from 84.38 in June to 84.56 at the end of July 2020, the data showed. Delhi service area had maximum tele-density of 272.10 and the Bihar service area had minimum tele-density of 52.24 at the end of July.

"All service areas showed growth except Mumbai, West Bengal, UP (W), Karnataka, Bihar and Haryana in their wireless subscribers during the month of July. Kolkata service area showed maximum growth of 2.03 per cent in its wireless subscriber base during the month," TRAI said.

In terms of subscriber market share for wireless services, Reliance Jio continued to dominate with 35.03 per cent, followed by Bharti Airtel at 27.96 per cent and Vodafone Idea at 26.34 per cent share as on July 31, 2020. The private service providers held 89.33 per cent market share of the wireless subscribers whereas government-owned BSNL and MTNL had a market share of just 10.67 per cent.

In terms of active user base, Airtel continued to lead with 97 per cent subscribers as against 89.3 per cent of Vodafone Idea and 78 per cent of Reliance Jio. Total number of active wireless subscribers stood at 95.58 crore in June, 2020. The proportion of active wireless subscribers was approximately 83.54 per cent of the total wireless subscriber base.

Telecom subscriber base registered positive growth in July after five months of continuous fall, with number of telephone subscribers rising from 116.05 lakh in June to 116.40 lakh in July, posting a monthly growth rate of 0.30 per cent. The telecom industry lost 57.6 lakh subscribers during May, which was preceded by a loss of 82 lakh connections in April as coronavirus-triggered nationwide lockdown kept customer additions under pressure.

In the month of July, 2020, 75.3 lakh subscribers submitted their requests for Mobile Number Portability (MNP). With this, the cumulative MNP requests increased from 49.70 crore in June to 50.46 crore at the end of July.

By Chitranjan Kumar

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