India’s second largest telecom operator Bharti Airtel in April added 76,328 mobile users—its lowest monthly addition in five years—according to data by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.

Meanwhile, Reliance Jio added over three million wireless users in the month, largely due to subscriber loss by Vodafone Idea.

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The reason for the lowest addition of users by Airtel can be attributed to SIM consolidation by subscribers at lower level, owing to an increase in base level tariff hikes by the company, according to analysts.

After increasing the base level tariffs in two circles by 57% to Rs 155 from Rs 99, the company extended the tariff hikes to all 22 circles in March.

However, Airtel has retained its top position in 10 circles, including Bihar, Uttar Pradesh (East), Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Assam and Himachal Pradesh.

Data shows that the company is the only private telecom operator that has gained wireless subscribers in Jammu and Kashmir, Mumbai and Northeast in April.

The company added its highest April number— 90,000 users—in Assam, followed by Odisha, Rajasthan and West Bengal.
In comparison, Reliance Jio continued to top the subscriber additions for 13 straight months. In April, Jio added 3.04 million subscribers largely on the back of Vodafone Idea, which lost three million subscribers during the month. Vodafone Idea continued to lose subscribers for 25 straight months now. In April too, its subscriber loss was the highest in the past five months.

The total mobile user base was 1.143 billion at the end of April, down by 0.8 million from the preceding month. The fall in subscribers was largely attributed to the loss of Vodafone Idea and BSNL as well as weak subscriber addition by Airtel.
State-owned BSNL lost wireless subscribers for the 16th straight month. In April, the company lost 0.73 million wireless subscribers. BSNL’s total subscriber base as of April end was 102.8 million.

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As of April-end, Reliance Jio has a wireless subscribers’ market share of 37.9%, up from 37.61% in March. The company’s total wireless subscribers rose to 433.3 million. In comparison, Bharti Airtel’s market share rose marginally 32.45% from 32.42% in March, whereas Vodafone Idea’s share fell to 20.45% from 20.70% in the wireless subscribers’ segment.

Bharti Airtel’s total wireless subscriber base was at 370.9 million at the end of April, whereas Vodafone Idea’s subscriber base was at 233.7 million, according to Trai data.

With regard to the 4G subscriber base, telecom operators Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel added 5.37 million 4G users, according to data by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.

Vodafone Idea, however, lost 1.25 million 4G subscribers during the month while 4G subscriber additions for Airtel and Jio came on the back of the shift in the subscriber base from 2G as well as loss of subscribers by Vodafone Idea, according to analysts.

Since Jio’s network is completely on 4G from the start, its 4G subscriber addition is the same as that of total additions. Airtel added 2.33 million 4G subscribers, taking its total 4G subscribers to 238.1 million. Vodafone Idea’s 4G subscriber base was at 123.6 million as of April-end.The total 4G subscriber base rose to nearly 816 million.

As per the TRAI data, barring Bihar, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh (East), Odisha, Gujarat, and Andhra Pradesh, all other service areas show a decline in wireless subscribers during the month.

In urban areas, the overall mobile subscriber fell by 0.8 million to 626.74 million, whereas the rural subscriber base rose marginally to 516.39 million.

In April, 10.95 million subscribers submitted their requests for Mobile Number Portability (MNP). “With this, the cumulative MNP requests increased from 819.70 million at the end of March to 830.65 million at the end of April since the implementation of MNP,” the TRAI said.

The total number of active mobile users rose by nearly 4.2 million. Of the total 1.143 billion wireless subscribers, 1.038 billion or 90.84% were active, according to the peak visitor location register, which shows the number of active subscribers, including those roaming on a mobile operator’s network.

During the month, Reliance Jio’s active users rose by nearly 4.67 million to 407.23 million. The company’s visitor location register rose to 93.99% from 93.57% in March.

Bharti Airtel remained at top with the highest visitor location register subscribers among the telecom players at 99.81%. The company’s active subscriber base rose by 0.74 million in April, lowest additions in the past 18 months. Airtel’s total active subscribers’ base was at 370.3 million as of April end.

Vodafone Idea’s total active subscribers fell for the 13th straight month in April. The company’s active subscriber base fell by 0.85 million to 207.04 million.

In the wireline segment, Jio continues to take the lead. The operator added over 0.3 million subscribers, taking its total base to over 9.4 million.

Airtel’s wireline subscriber base at the end of April was at 7.25 million, whereas BSNL’s subscriber base in the segment was at 7.01 million. During the month, BSNL lost 94,492 users in the wireline segment, whereas Airtel added over 0.1 million users.

In March, Airtel pipped BSNL to become the second-largest fixed line or wireline service provider. In the wireline segment, telephone and broadband internet services are provided through a network of cables.