Reliance Jio Now Holds 51 Percent of Wireless Broadband Market Share in India: TRAI

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (TRAI) August data has been published, and it shows a monthly increase of telephone subscribers to 1,189.08 million at the end of August from 1,179.32 million at the end of July, thereby showing a monthly growth rate of 0.83 percent. Reliance Jio continued its momentum with the most amounts of wireless subscriber additions in August, but it also now holds more than half of the wireless broadband market share in India. As of August, Reliance Jio now holds more than 51 percent of the wireless broadband market share, with the second in command being Bharti Airtel with 21.21 percent market share in India.

Talking about broadband first, Jio in August was found to have a 239.23 million wireless subscriber base and a 51.60 percent market share. In the month of July, Jio had a wireless broadband subscriber base of 227.05 million and a market share of 49.33 percent market share. Notably, since Jio operates a 4G-only network, all its mobile subscribers count in the wireless broadband segment. Even Airtel saw an increase in subscriber base from 93.11 million (20.71 percent) in July, to 96.21 million (21.21 percent) in August. Vodafone, on the other hand, saw a decrease in wireless subscriber base with 63.79 million (13.86 percent) in July, to 51.25 million (11.05 percent) in August. Idea Cellular and BSNL enjoy wireless broadband subscriber base of 44.24 million and 11.19 million respectively.

In the wired broadband space though, BSNL still rules with a 9.15 million subscribers, Bharti Airtel enjoys 2.21 million subscriber base, Atria Convergence Technologies has 1.34 million subscriber base, MTNL has 0.83 million, and Hathway Cable and Datacom has 0.75 million subscriber base.

With respect to wireless subscribers, Reliance Jio enjoys the fastest growing momentum with an addition of 12.178 million subscribers in the month of August. Comparatively, Vodafone added 1.141 million subscribers, with Airtel falling slightly behind at 1.1004 million subscriber additions. After the merger, Vodafone (19.24 percent) and Idea (18.61 percent) jointly own a market share of 37.85 percent (down from 38.37 percent in July), and Airtel owns a market share of 29.64 percent in August. Reliance Jio, on the other hand owns a market share of 20.50 percent, leaving behind Vodafone and Idea's individual market share of 19.24 and 18.61 percent respectively.