Jio User Base Rises by 13 Million in September as Rivals Airtel, Vodafone, and Idea Lose Subscribers: TRAI

Telecom subscriber base in India grew by 2.32 million to 1,191.40 million in September, even as Reliance Jio continued to lead in gaining subscribers, as per a report by TRAI with data up to September 30. As per the report, the number of total wireless subscribers also grew by 2.40 million to 1,169.29 million. Reliance Jio was the only gainer in September this year, while Vodafone-Idea was the biggest loser for the month. This represented a monthly growth rate of 5.44 percent for Jio, with a total of 13.02 million new subscribers. Meanwhile, all other major telcos including Airtel and BSNL lost a huge number of their customers.

"The number of telephone subscribers in India increased from 1,189.08 million at the end of August 2018 to 1,191.40 million at the end of September 2018, thereby showing a monthly growth rate of 0.20 percent," the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India said in its monthly subscriber report on Friday. According to the report, Reliance Jio led the market by gaining over 13.02 million subscribers, taking its total customer base to 252.2 million (21.57 percent market share). Telecom major Bharti Airtel had the highest market share of 29.38 percent (with a user base of 343.5 million), but it lost 2.3 million subscribers. Meanwhile, Idea lost 4.06 million customers, taking its market share to 18.23 percent (213.1 million), Vodafone lost 2.6 million, taking its share to 18.97 percent (221.8 million). State-owned telecom operator BSNL, on the other hand, lost 0.53 million, taking its base to 113.04 million by the end of September - giving it a market share of 9.67 percent.

Meanwhile, RCom, which shut down its telecom services last December, lost 16,349 more subscribers in September. Additionally, Tata Teleservices lost 1.01 million of its users. Also, MTNL lost 9,435 of its users.

The number of total broadband subscribers increased to 481.7 million from about 463.65 million in August. "Top five service providers constituted 97.86 percent market share of the total broadband subscribers at the end of Sep-18. These service providers were Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (252.25 million), Bharti Airtel (99.29 million), Vodafone (51.82 million), Idea Cellular (47.90 million) and BSNL (20.12 million)," the TRAI report said.

Looking at only wireless broadband, Reliance Jio led the pack with 252.25 million. If you're wondering how that number is the same for total broadband subscribers and wireless, Jio operates a 4G-only network, and all its mobile subscribers count in the wireless broadband segment. Airtel was next with 97.05 million, Vodafone third with 51.81 million, Idea fourth with 47.89 million, and BSNL fifth with 10.97 million.

When it comes to the wired broadband service, BSNL leads the market with 9.15 million followed by Airtel with 2.24 million, Atria with 1.36 million, MTNL with 0.80 million, and Hathway with 0.75 million.