The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released its telecom subscription monthly report for January. According to the report, Bharti Airtel added over 300 percent more wireless subscribers than Reliance Jio in the month of January. Airtel added over 5.89 million subscribers, wheres, Jio only added 1.95 million, however, Jio has still managed to keep hold of the lead with it continuing to have the country’s largest subscriber base.
According to TRAI’s latest data, Jio currently has over 410.73 million subscribers with a market share of 35.30 percent, followed by Airtel with 344.60 million subscribers with a market share of 29.62 percent. Vodafone Idea (Vi) managed to add over 1.71 million wireless subscribers in January, bringing its subscriber up to 285.96 million wireless subscribers. BSNL managed to add 81,659 wireless subscribers, bringing its count up to 118.69 million.
Airtel currently leads the growth chart with 1.74 percent growth. Jio managed to record a growth of 0.48 percent, whereas, Vi’s market share declined from 24.64 percent to 24.58 percent, and BSNL’s market share declined from 10.29 percent to 10.21 percent.
The report also highlighted that the total wireless subscriber base of the country increased from 1,153.77 million in December to 1,163.41 million in January, registering a growth rate of 0.84 percent. Subscribers in urban areas increased to 634.97 million from 629.67 million, whereas, rural areas saw growth from 524.11 million to 528.44 million. Similar to the total subscriber base, the wireless teledensity in the country also increased to 85.53 percent from 84.90 percent.
The data also revealed that telecom operators received a total of 7.63 million mobile number portability (MNP) requests in January.
In terms of broadband service providers, Jio leads the pack in both fixed and wireless broadband subscribers with a total of 412.98 million subscribers. It is followed by Airtel at 184.64 million, Vi at 122.72 million, BSNL at 26.67 million and ACT Fibernet at 1.80 million.
