Continuing its exponential growth in Indian telecom sector, Reliance Jio has displaced the state-owned telecom operator BSNL to become the fourth largest telecom operator in India. Within a short span of six months after starting commercial operation in 5th September 2016, Jio has captured almost 8.83 percent of India’s telecom market share. That’s in the cost of market leaders Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular.
According to the latest Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) telecom subscription data as on February 2017, Reliance Jio is striving with over 102 million mobile subscribers. During this period Jio added around 12.2 million new subscribers to its network. Whereas, Airtel and Idea Cellular were able to add only around 1.2 million subscribers each to its network. BSNL was a star performer with 1.1 million new subscribers addition during the period.
Highlights of Telecom Subscription Data (28th February 2017)
- The number of telephone subscribers in India touched 1,188.55 million with a monthly growth rate of 1.17 percent.
- The overall teledensity in India increased to 92.96 at the end of February 2017.
- Total wireless subscriber base which also includes the mobile subscribers in the country increased to 1,164.20 million.
- Private telecom operators hold 91.19 percent of Indian telecom market share. Whereas the two PSU telecom operators BSNL and MTNL have a market share of 8.81 percent.
- Reliance Jio adds the maximum number of subscribers to its network, followed by Airtel and Idea Cellular.
- On the losing side, Telewings and Tata Teleservices lost around 0.7 million subscribers during this period.
- Airtel still holds the top position in India telecom sector with 23.25 percent market share. Followed by Vodafone India with 17.80 percent market share and Idea Cellular with 16.60 percent market share.
- Out of the total wireless subscriber base, 1,010.63 million wireless subscribers were active on the date of peak VLR in the month of February 2017.
- Wireline subscriber base which includes BSNL landline increased to 24.35 million.
- In the month of February 2017 alone a total of 5.67 million requests were received for Mobile number portability (MNP).
- The highest number of MNP requests till date have been received in Andhra Pradesh (about 24.17 million) followed by Rajasthan (about 22.49 million).
Highlights of Broadband Data (28th February 2017)
- The number of broadband subscribers, which include both mobile and wired subscribers increased to 261.31 million at the end of February 2017. Thanks to the continuing Reliance Jio’s free and ultra affordable Prime plans.
- Taking mobile broadband subscribers alone, Reliance Jio has the almost double the data subscribers than the nearest competitor. The operator has around 102.84 million data subscribers. Whereas Airtel has only 44.62 million subscribers and Vodafone India at third with 32.05 million subscribers.
- On wired broadband connection, BSNL tops with 9.95 million subscribers, followed by Airtel with 2.07 million subscribers.