Airtel Holds Top Position as India's Mobile Subscriber Base Hits 1.049 Billion in April: COAI

The total mobile subscriber base in India has hit 1.049 billion, adding a total of 9.39 million, as per telecom subscriber figures released by Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) for the month ending in April 2018. Among the individual telcos, Airtel continues to hold the top position by adding 4.50 million subscribers during the month. Interestingly, Idea had the maximum number of subscriber additions. COAI says the data also includes the figures of Reliance Jio, Aircel, Telenor, RCom, BSNL, and MTNL by the end of March 2018, as provided by TRAI, but doesn't include data from April, thus the net additions may differ from the actual net additions in the country.

As mentioned, Airtel held on to the top position with total mobile subscribers reaching 308.6 million during April. Airtel is followed by Vodafone, which now has a total subscriber base of 222.03 million. Meanwhile, Idea Cellular had the maximum number of subscriber additions, adding 5.55 million to bring its total subscribers to 216.76 million.

As per the report, Aircel has a subscriber base of 74.15 million, Telenor has 37.98 million, and MTNL had 3.56 million. Also, Jio now has 186.56 million. Interestingly, Vodafone lost 660,000 subscribers in the month of April.

Altogether, Airtel now enjoys 29.41 percent market share, followed by Vodafone with 21.15 percent market share, as per the COAI report. Idea is at the third position, with 20.65 percent share while Jio is at the fourth position with 17.77 percent market share.

Notably, the COAI report for the month of April also provides mobile subscriber numbers for individual circles. It showed that the UP (East) circle remained at the top with a total of 91.07 million subscribers. Meanwhile, Maharashtra was positioned second with a total of 84.26 million mobile subscribers.

Rajan S Mathews, Director General, COAI said, "We are glad to see the constant growth of the subscribers' base and expansion of connectivity in the rural areas. With this increasing reach, people are also shifting to 4G technology."

As per the TRAI report for March 2018, Airtel continued to hold the winning position with 25.70 percent telecom market share at 304.1 million subscribers. Vodafone held 18.82 percent market share with 222.6 million subscribers, and Idea held 17.85 percent share with 211.2 million subscribers. Jio sat at the fourth position with 15.76 percent market share with 186.5 million subscribers.

Is the Reliance Jio effect spreading to postpaid connections in India? We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.