Bharti Airtel topped the telecom industry in mobile subscriber additions in July, adding 2.69 million users during the month, narrowly ahead of market leader Reliance Jio’s 2.45 million, according to monthly subscription data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Friday.
Vodafone Idea (Vi) added 240,114 subscribers, while state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) gained 168,874.
The industry’s overall wireless subscriber base rose to 1.288 billion at the end of July from 1.282 billion a month earlier. Jio continued to lead in total mobile subscribers, with its base rising to 506.03 million, followed by Airtel at 489.48 million and Vi at 199.06 million.
Private operators accounted for 92.75% of the wireless market at the end of July, while BSNL and MTNL together held the remaining 7.25%.
Broadband and Fixed Wireless Connections
The growth also extended to broadband, with total broadband subscriptions rising to 1.09 billion from 1.08 billion in June, a monthly increase of 0.64%. Jio remained the largest broadband provider with 535.12 million subscribers, followed by Airtel at 384.23 million and Vi at 129.96 million. Both urban and rural markets recorded net additions during the month.
Fixed connectivity also continued to expand. Wired broadband subscribers rose 0.90% to 48.14 million from 47.71 million, while fixed wireless access (FWA) subscriptions, including 5G FWA and unlicensed band radio (UBR)-based connections, increased 2.60% to 18.84 million from 18.36 million.
Jio, the only operator currently reporting UBR FWA subscribers, added 204,320 users in July, taking its UBR base to 5.14 million from 4.93 million in June.
Including wireline connections, the total telephone subscriber base increased to 1.354 billion in July, taking overall tele-density to 94.68%.
The share of active subscribers edged down to 93.48% of the wireless subscriber base from 93.66% in June, even as the active base rose to 1.204 billion from around 1.201 billion. Airtel continued to have the highest active-subscriber ratio at 99.12%, followed by Jio at 98.82% and Vi at 83.97%. BSNL’s active ratio stood at 55.02%.
Subscriber churn also appeared to pick up, with 15.98 million requests filed under the Mobile Number Portability (MNP) system in July, up from 14.78 million in June.