Bharti Airtel adds 4.37 million subscribers in Nov, Vi loses 2.89 million customers

Telecom operator Bharti Airtel added 4.37 million subscribers in November, while its rival Reliance Jio Infocomm gained 1.93 million customers. However, Vodafone Idea (Vi) lost 2.89 million customers, showed the data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on January 28.

While Airtel’s customer base grew to 28.97 percent, Jio remains India’s biggest telecom operator by market share at 35.34 percent. On the other hand, Vi’s market share shrunk to 25.10 percent, the data showed.

“All service areas except West Bengal, Rajasthan, Kolkata, Jammu and Kashmir, and Mumbai showed growth in the number of wireless subscribers during November. Madhya Pradesh service area showed maximum growth of 1 percent in wireless customer base during the month,” Trai said in a statement.

Among the top three wireless segment telecom operators, Reliance Jio’s active subscribers were the lowest. As of November 30, Jio’s active subscriber base stood at 79.55 percent, Airtel’s at 96.63 percent, and Vi’s at 89.01 percent of the total customers.

Total wireless subscribers increased from 1,151.81 million at the end of October to 1,155.20 million at the end of November 2020, thereby registering a monthly growth rate of 0.29 percent.

Trai further said Jio secured the first position in wireless or mobile broadband segment with 408.29 million customers as of November 30. While, Airtel, Vi, and BSNL had 171.74 million, 120.96 million, and 18.40 million users, respectively.

Jio provides only 4G services, while its rivals – Bharti Airtel and Vi have over 50 percent of their customers on 2G.

Trai said the total subscribers in the wireline or fixed-line segment increased from 19.99 million at the end of October to 20.07 million in November. BSNL and MTNL together hold 51.86 percent market share, while Airtel and Jio have 22.51 percent and 12.55 percent share, respectively.

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio added 195,637 customers in November, while Airtel gained 54,499 users during the month. State-owned telecom operators BSNL and MTNL lost 139,326 and 22,691 fixed-line customers in November, respectively. Moneycontrol