Reliance Jio Subscriber Base Declines In February, Bharti Airtel's Rises
Mobile subscriber base declined across the country, except in three circles -- Uttar Pradesh East, Jammu & Kashmir, and Haryana.
India's telecom subscriber base declined to 116.6 crore in February this year, with Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. and Vodafone Idea Ltd. losing customers in the mobile services segment.
Bharti Airtel Ltd. was the only net gainer, according to the subscriber data put out by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.
The number of fixed-line users continued to increase with private telecom operators gaining market share while public sector firms -- Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. -- losing subscribers.
"The number of telephone subscribers in India decreased from 1,169.46 million in January 2022 to 1,166.05 million in February 2022, thereby showing a monthly decline rate of 0.29%," the TRAI report stated.
Mobile subscriber base declined across the country, except in three circles -- Uttar Pradesh East, Jammu & Kashmir, and Haryana.
February was the third straight month when Reliance Jio lost market share. The company lost 36.6 lakh mobile subscribers, taking its total wireless subscriber base to 40.27 crore. Vodafone Idea lost 15.32 lakh users while BSNL and MTNL lost 1.11 lakh and 5,097 such customers, respectively.
Bharti Airtel added 15.91 lakh new customers in February.
The growth trend in wireline subscriber base, which picked up after the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic, is gaining momentum with private telecom operators driving the growth in the segment.
"Wireline subscribers increased from 24.21 million at the end of January 2022 to 24.52 million at the end of February 2022," the TRAI report stated. "Net increase in the wireline subscriber base was 0.31 million with a monthly growth rate of 1.27%."
Reliance Jio led the growth in the wireline segment by adding 2.44 lakh customers. It was followed by Bharti Airtel which added 91,243 customers, Vodafone Idea (24,948), Quadrant (18,622) and Tata Teleservices (3,772). The government-owned BSNL and MTNL, who jointly have a 49.5% share in the segment, lost 49,074 and 21,900 fixed-line customers, respectively.
Broadband subscriber base in the country declined marginally to 78.33 crore in February from 78.34 crore in January.
"The Top-5 service providers constituted 98.5% market share of the total broadband subscribers at the end of February 2022," according to the TRAI report. "These service providers were Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. (40.77 crore), Bharti Airtel (21.31 crore), Vodafone Idea (12.19 crore), BSNL (2.67 crore) and Atria Convergence (20.6 lakh)."