Reliance Jio has added 7.92 million wireless subscribers in March, primarily on the back of the JioPhone offer. This is the second consecutive month when Jio has added the highest subscribers among the telecom operators.
Bharti Airtel comes second with 4.05 million additions followed by Vodafone Idea, which added 1.08 million subscribers. Interestingly, Vodafone Idea, too, has witnessed subscriber additions for two straight months after losing customers for around 16 months, data shared by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) showed.
Reliance had launched a JioPhone offer on February 26, primarily targeting the feature phone subscribers in the country. As the offer was applicable from March 1, its impact was witnessed in the March additions.
As per Trai data for March, Jio’s wireless subscriber base increased to 422.92 million followed by 352.39 million of Airtel. Vodafone Idea’s base increased to 283.71 million. State-run BSNL, too, added 193,359 users, which led to its base to increase to 118.53 million. Overall, the wireless users rose by 13.24 million in March to take the overall userbase to 1,180.96 million.
In terms of wireless broadband users, Jio’s base stood at 422.92 million, followed by Airtel at 188.84 million, Vi at 123.60 million. Competition for 4G users is heating up 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 Vi, who are up for grabs. Reliance is giving a JioPhone for Rs 1,999, which comes with 24 months of unlimited service. Another plan is for Rs 1,499, which comes with 12 months of unlimited service.
As there is so much customer movement, MNP requests have been consistently high for the past few months. The MNP requests stood at 12.74 million in March.
In terms of wireline broadband, RJio has been adding the maximum number of users primarily due to the rollout of its fibre connectivity across the country. It added around 170,000 wireline broadband users followed by 100,000 of Airtel.
BSNL managed to curb attrition of wireline broadband users. As on March, the wireline broadband base of BSNL stood at 6.82 million, followed by 3.09 million of Airtel, 2.60 million of Jio, 1.85 million of ACT and 1.07 million of Hathway Cable.
