Reliance Jio Adds Nearly 90 Million Subscribers in 2019, Vodafone Idea Loses Over 80 Million: TRAI

Reliance Jio has added as many as 89.90 million wireless subscribers in the year 2019. Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released a new 2019 annual report titled ‘Yearly Performance Indicators of Indian Telecom Sector,' that shows the number of additions and subtractions in subscribers that telecom providers made year-on-year. As per the report, Reliance Jio's total wireless subscriber base increased from 280.12 million in December 2018 to 370.2 million in December 2019. Reliance Jio became the market leader with 32.14 percent market share of total wireless telephone subscriber base by the end of 2019.

While Reliance Jio saw considerable gains in 2019, Vodafone Idea and Airtel lost millions of wireless subscribers, the TRAI report shows. Vodafone Idea lost 86.13 million subscribers in 2019 and Airtel lost 12.96 million subscribers. Vodafone Idea subscriber base declined from 418.75 million subscribers in December 2018 to 332.61 million subscribers in December 2019. Its market share reduced from 35.61 percent to 28.89 percent.

Airtel also lost subscribers, but not as much as Vodafone Idea. It saw a decline from 340.26 million subscribers in December 2018 to 327.30 million subscribers in December 2019. The telco's market share marginally reduced from 28.93 percent to 28.43 percent.

State-owned BSNL added 3.74 million wireless subscribers last year and went from 114.37 million subscribers in December 2018 to 118.12 million subscribers in December 2019. BSNL's market share stands at 10.26 percent at the end of last year.

The TRAI report reveals that the top five broadband (wired + wireless) service providers in term of subscribers at the end of December 2019 are Reliance Jio (370.87 million), Bharti Airtel (140.40 million), Vodafone Idea (118.45 million), BSNL (23.96 million) and Atria Convergence Technologies (1.52 million). In wireless broadband segment, Reliance Jio held 57.56 percent market share with 370.02 million subscribers, followed by Airtel with 21.47 percent market share (137.98 million subscribers) at the end of December 2019.

TRAI reveals that the number of telephone subscribers in India decreased from 1,197.87 million at the end of December 2018 to 1,172.44 million at the end of December 2019, registering a yearly decline rate of 2.12 percent. With respect to total number of telephone subscribers, Reliance Jio added 90.95 million net subscribers in 2019. All telecom operators have registered a decline in subscriber base except for Reliance Jio and BSNL.

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