India’s largest telecom operator Reliance Jio cemented its lead in the market as it gained over 31 lakh mobile subscribers in May, according to the Trai data released on Tuesday.
Sunil Mittal-led Bharti Airtel added 10.27 lakh subscribers in May, taking its mobile user tally to 36.21 crore.
According to monthly subscriber data by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), Reliance Jio gained 31.11 lakh wireless subscribers, taking its mobile customer count to 40.87 crore.
Debt-ridden Vodafone Idea lost 7.59 lakh wireless subscribers, and its subscriber base slid to 25.84 crore in the same period.
In April, Jio had added 16.8 lakh wireless customers, while month-on-month gain for Bharti Airtel was at 8.16 lakh. Voda Idea had lost about 15.7 lakh customers during April.
In May, the number of telephone subscribers in India remained almost flat at 117 crore, as against 116.7 crore at the end of April 2022.
“Urban telephone subscription increased from 646.99 million at the end of April-22 to 647.81 million at the end of May-22 and the rural subscription also increased from 520.82 million to 522.92 million during the same period,” TRAI said.
The monthly growth rates of urban and rural telephone subscription were 0.13 per cent and 0.4 per cent respectively during the month of May 2022.
On the wireless side, subscriber base showed a modest monthly growth of 0.25 per cent, to 114.5 crore at the end of May.
“Wireless subscription in urban areas increased from 623.78 million at the end of April-22 to 624.55 million at the end of May-22 and wireless subscription in rural areas also increased from 518.88 million to 520.96 million during the same period,” it said.
As on May 31, 2022, the private operators held 89.9 per cent market share in the wireless space, whereas state-owned telecom operators BSNL and MTNL had a market share of only about 10 per cent.
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) lost 5.36 lakh wireless subscribers in May, while the customer loss for Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) stood at 2,665.
Bharti Airtel had 35.4 crore active users (or 97.9 per cent of its overall user base), while the active subscribers tally for Reliance Jio was 38.3 crore (93.7 per cent of its overall wireless base).
The total broadband subscribers increased to 79.4 crore at the end of May 2022, from 78.8 crore in April. This translated into monthly growth rate of 0.75 per cent.
“Top five service providers constituted 98.48 per cent market share of the total broadband subscribers at the end of May 2022. These service providers were Reliance Jio Infocomm (414.67 million), Bharti Airtel (217.09 million), Vodafone Idea (123.24 million), BSNL (25.52 million)...,”
