For the first time in the past few years, Bharti Airtel has beaten Reliance Jio in terms of maximum subscriber addition in a month. According to the latest Telecom Subscription Data as on August 2020, by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) – Airtel was successful in adding 2.89 million new subscribers to its network. While the current market leader Reliance Jio was only able to attract 1.86 million new subscribers to its network. Jio still holds the top spot in the Indian telecom market with 35.08 per cent share. Whereas, Airtel too is slowly gaining momentum and control 28.12 per cent of the market.
When talking about Vi (Vodafone Idea), it seems the telco still can’t hold on to its customer base. The telco alone lost around 1.22 million customers in the month of August 2020. On the same time, without even a full-fledged 4G network, state-owned telco BSNL was able to attract new customers to its network. The government telco added around 2.14 lakh new customers to its network during the period.
Stats on Indian Telecom (August 2020)
- The number of telephone subscribers (including both wireless and wired connections) in India increased to 1,167.81 million. Out of these, the total wireless subscribers alone (which also includes 2G, 3G and 4G LTE subscribers) in the country, also increased to 1,147.92 million.
- Private telecom operators hold on Indian telecom market share increased to 89.35 per cent. Whereas, both PSU telecom operators BSNL and MTNL together hold 10.65 per cent of the market.
- During the period, Airtel added the maximum number of new customers – 2899,797 subscribers.
- On the losing side, we have Vodafone Idea 1,228,334 subscribers.
- Reliance Jio tops the Indian telecom sector with a clear majority of 35.08 per cent market share. Whereas, Airtel share gained to 28.12 per cent, and Vodafone Idea to around 26.15 per cent.
- Out of the total wireless subscribers (1,147.92 million), 957.43 million wireless subscribers were active on the date of peak VLR in August 2020.
- Airtel got the maximum proportion of active wireless subscribers – 96.85 per cent as against its total wireless subscribers.
- The wireline subscriber base increased to 19.89 million in August 2020. BSNL with MTNL topped the wireline segment with 55.18 per cent market share.
- However, Reliance Jio with its Jio Fiber is expanding rapidly and now commands over 8.92 per cent of the wireline segment. Airtel has also been expanding radially its wireline and broadband presence, which stands now at second spot with 21.86 per cent.
- There were 7.53 million Mobile number portability (MNP) requests in August 2020.
Stats on Indian Broadband (August 2020)
- The number of broadband subscribers, which include both mobile and wired subscribers increased to 716.19 million.
- Reliance Jio tops the chart in the Indian data market with 403.92 million subscribers. Airtel takes the second spot with 158.98 million data subscribers.
- In wired broadband and Fiber connections, BSNL continues to hold the top spot with 7.85 million subscribers. On the second spot, we have Airtel Broadband with 2.53 million subscribers. Reliance Jio with its Jio Fiber now stands at fourth spot with 1.25 million subscribers.
- In the Wireless broadband service (3G, 4G) providers, rank list (based on the number of subscribers) Reliance Jio tops the chart, followed by Airtel and Vodafone India.