India’s second largest telecom operator Bharti Airtel has added 3.98 million 4G/5G users in November, which is the highest in 27 months, according to data from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai). Out of the total 379.8 million subscribers, the company’s wireless broadband, which largely includes 4G subscribers at the end of November were at 255.07 million, compared to 251.1 million in October, Trai data showed.
The trend assumes significance in the sense that in October, Airtel added only 520,000 4G/5G users, which were its lowest in 18 months. The increase in 4G additions in November can be attributed to the overall subscriber base additions in the industry, as well as migration from the low end or 2G subscribers to 4G/5G, which also means a feature phone to smartphone shift.
The company, however, continued to lose active subscribers for the second straight month in November. During the month, the company lost 432,941 subscribers, taking its active subscriber count to 374.52 million. In October, the telecom operator reported a 1.2 million dip in active subscribers, which was its highest in 18 months. At that time, analysts had said that it was a one-time phenomena and did not lead to concerns over the company’s fundamentals.
Airtel overall added 1.7 million subscribers, which also includes 2G services, thereby taking its total base to 379.8 million at the end of November.
Market leader Jio, whose network is completely on 4G/5G, continued to lead the subscriber additions in November. The telecom operator added 3.45 million subscribers during the month, higher than 3.1 million in October. Its total subscriber base was at 455.81 million at the end of November.
Vodafone Idea too added 0.96 million 4G subscribers, compared to a loss of 830,000 4G subscribers in October. Its 4G base as of November end was at 126.6 million. The telecom operator, however, continued to lose overall net mobile additions for 32 months. In November, Vodafone Idea lost over 1 million users, taking its total base to 224.4 million.
The subscriber base overall rose by nearly 3.2 million to 1.154 billion, which is the highest increase in 2.5 years.
With regard to 4G, the three telecom operators net added 8.4 million 4G subscribers, Trai data showed. As of November end, a total of 837.52 million 4G subscribers were there in the country.
In November, BSNL lost subscribers for the 23rd straight month. The state-owned telecom operator lost 938,846 active subscribers, taking its base to 91.9 million, according to Trai data.
Trai data suggests that Airtel’s market share rose to 32.91% in November from 32.85% in October, and Jio’s share rose to 39.49% from 39.30%. Vodafone Idea’s market share fell to 19.44% from 19.59% in the previous month. BSNL’s market share fell to 7.98% from 8.08%.
With regard to active subscriber, the overall base rose by 468,150 in November. Of the total 1.154 billion subscribers, 1.045 billion or 90.62% were active, according to the peak visitor location register, which shows the number of active users, including those roaming on a mobile operator’s network.
Vodafone Idea added 133,035 active subscribers, taking its total base to 198.5 million. Jio added 1.2 million active subscribers, with an active user base of 423.3 million as of November end.