The wireless subscriber base in the country increased to 1,173.75 million at the end of September, primarily on the back of additions by Reliance Jio and BSNL. Apart from these two, all other operators lost wireless subscribers in the month, data shared by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) said.
The wireless subscriber base stood at 1,171 million at the end of August. Another notable thing that has happened during the month is an increase in wireline subscribers, that too because of Reliance Jio, which added 857,461 users. The wireline subscriber base has been declining continuously over the past few years. At the end of September, the wireline subscriber base stood at 21.49 million against 20.82 million at the end of August.
As per the data, Jio added 6.98 million subscribers during the month to take its base to 355.22 million with a market share of 30.26%. Vodafone Idea lost 2.57 million customers and its base shrank to 372.48 million but it still remained the largest operator with 31.73% market share.
Bharti Airtel also lost 2.38 million subscribers and its base decreased to 325.56 million, which constitutes a market share of 27.74%, making it the third-largest telecom company.
State-run BSNL continues its good run with addition of 7,37,928 subscribers to increase its base to 116.97 million users, with a market share of 9.97%.
In terms of broadband, the subscribers increased to 625.42 million at the end of September compared to 615.43 million last month. The wired broadband subscribers increased to 19.01 million against 18.32 million last month, while wireless subscribers increased to 605.84 million against 596.55 million last month. All the four telecom operators –Airtel, Vodafone Idea, Reliance Jio and BSNL – added wireless broadband subscribers.