Jio Fiber Adds Most Wired Broadband Subscribers in September, TRAI Data Shows

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (TRAI) latest telecom subscription report for September 2020 shows the top five wired and wireless broadband service providers, and as with previous months, BSNL led the wired broadband market with 7.80 million subscribers and Reliance Jio led the wireless segment with 404.13 million users. Notably, the wireless segment includes 4G SIM cards and mobile hotspot dongles. In terms of market share, Reliance Jio captured 55.85 percent of the wired+wireless broadband market while Bharti Airtel was second with 22.86 percent market share. JioFiber broadband service also added over 3 lakh new customers in September 2020 as per the latest data.

According to the latest report by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), as of September 30, the top five wired broadband service providers in the country were BSNL with 7.80 million subscribers, followed by Bharti Airtel at 2.60 million and Atria Convergence Technologies (ACT) at 1.73 million. Reliance Jio came next at 1.52 million followed by Hathway Cable at 1.05 million. For wireless broadband providers, Jio saw 404.13 million as of September 30. Bharti Airtel was at 163.41 million, followed by Vodafone Idea at 119.84 million, BSNL at 17.03 million and Tikona at 0.31 million.

Compared to the previous month, till August 31, the top five wired broadband service providers were BSNL at 7.85 million, Bharti Airtel at 2.53 million, ACT at 1.70 million, Reliance Jio at 1.25 million, and Hathway at 1.03 million. This shows a drop of roughly 50,000 for BSNL, an increase of 70,000 by Airtel, and an increase of 270,000 for Reliance Jio, or rather, Jio Fiber. For the wireless broadband service providers, Reliance Jio was at 402.67 million, Bharti Airtel at 156.45 million, Vodafone Idea at 119.91 million, BSNL at 15.90 million, and Tikona at 0.31 million.

The report shows the wired broadband subscribers grew by 3.13 percent in the month of September, compared to August, to 21.12 million. Mobile device users including phone and dongle users increased by 1.36 percent to 704.57 million. Fixed wireless subscribers including Wi-Fi, Wi-Max, Point-to-point radio, and VSAT increased by 0.04 percent to 640,000. Total number of broadband subscribers went from 716.19 million in August to 726.32 million in September.

In terms of wireline or landline (including non-broadband) connections, Reliance Jio added over 3 lakh new customers. This number was significantly higher than all other service providers in the country with Bharti Airtel following with over 66,000 new users. On the other hand, MTNL and BSNL lost subscribers by over 19,000 and over 1.82 lakh respectively. Interestingly, BSNL held the largest market share at 38.55 percent. Reliance Jio captured 10.35 percent of the market while Bharti Airtel was ahead at 21.99 percent. It should be noted that Reliance Jio wireline figures consist of Jio Fiber broadband connections, as Jio does not provide only landline connections. Also, not all ISPs offer dongles and the wireless connection numbers includes 4G, dongles, and hotpots.

In the meanwhile, Bharat Fibre, the Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) service by BSNL, has crossed the one million subscribers mark. Bharat Fibre aka Bharat Fiber was launched in India early last year.

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