After lagging behind Bharti Airtel for the last six months, Reliance Jio has returned to adding maximum wireless subscribers. In February, Jio added 4.26 million wireless customers followed by 3.73 million by Bharti Airtel. The company had launched a JioPhone offer on February 26, primarily targeting the 300 feature phone subscribers in the country.
The impact of JioPhone offer could be witnessed in March as the offer was applicable from March 1. Another highlight of the February data was Vodafone Idea returning to adding subscribers. The company, which has been consistently losing customers for the past around 16 months, managed to add 652,625 subscribers in February.
Vodafone Idea had lost 2.28 million wireless subscribers in January. The numbers for Vodafone Idea were revised last month after the company inadvertently submitted wrong data about adding 1.7 million subscribers in January. But after admitting to its error, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) put out the revised numbers, which stated loss of 2.28 million subscribers by the company.
As per data shared by Trai for February, Jio’s wireless subscriber base increased to 415 million followed by 348.33 million of Airtel. Vodafone Idea’s base increased to 282.62 million. Although all the three private mobile operators added subscribers in February, state-run BSNL lost 361,088 users, which led to its base decline to 118.33 million.
In terms of wireless broadband users, Jio’s base stood at 415 million, followed by Airtel at 185.22 million, Vodafone Idea at 123.27 million. Competition for 4G users is getting intense as mobile operators try to add and upgrade more users. With the launch of JioPhone, Reliance has once again reiterated its commitment to make a 2G free India.
Currently, there are around 300 million 2G users, primarily on the networks of Airtel, BSNL and Vodafone Idea, who are up for grabs. Reliance is giving a JioPhone for Rs 1999, which comes with 24 months of unlimited service. Another plan is for Rs 1499, which comes with 12 months of unlimited service.
As there is so much customer movement, the MNP requests have also been consistently high for the past few months. The MNP requests stood at 11.68 million in February.
In terms of wireline broadband subscribers, Reliance Jio has been adding the maximum number of users, primarily due to the rollout of its fibre connectivity across the country. Jio added around 180,000 wireline broadband users in February followed by 90,000 of Airtel. BSNL lost 870,000 wireline broadband users. As in February, the wireline broadband base of BSNL stood at 6.82 million, followed by 2.99 million of Airtel, 2.43 million of Reliance Jio, 1.82 million of ACT and 1.07 million of Hathway Cable.
