Airtel pips Reliance Jio in monthly mobile subscriber addition after 4 years

Bharti Airtel pipped Reliance Jio in new mobile subscriber addition in September after a gap of four years, according to data published by telecom regulator Trai on Thursday.

Reliance Jio had maintained leadership position in monthly mobile subscriber addition since the launch of its commercial operations in September 2016. It had added 15.97 million new customers when it commenced commercial operations.

Bharti Airtel led mobile subscriber growth in September 2020 with a net addition of 3.77 million new customers. It was followed by Reliance Jio with net addition of 1.46 million and BSNL with 78,454 new customers.

Vodafone Idea was the biggest loser as it lost 4.65 million subscribers during the reported month. MTNL and Reliance Communications lost 5,784 and 1,324 customers, respectively.

Reliance Jio led the market in terms of overall mobile subscriber base with 404.12 million customers. It was followed by Bharti Airtel with 326.61 million subscribers, Vodafone Idea with 295.49 million customers, BSNL with 118.89 million subscribers and MTNL with 3.33 million customers.

The total telecom subscriber base in the country increased marginally to 1,168.66 million in the reported month from 1,167.81 million in August.

The total wireless or mobile telephony subscriber base increased to 1,148.58 million in September 2020 from 1,147.92 million in August 2020.

The landline customer base in the country also increased to 20.08 million in September from 19.89 million in August.

The growth in the landline segment was driven by private operators. Reliance Jio added over 3,03,205 customers. It was followed by Bharti Airtel which added 66,335 new customers, Vodafone Idea with 22,042 customers, Quadrant with 6,359 subscribers and Tata Teleservices with 3,606 customers.

Public sector telecom firms BSNL and MTNL lost 1,82,549 and 19,566 landline customers, respectively. Reliance Communications was the only private player that lost landline customers during the reported month.

Broadband subscribers in the country increased by 1.41 per cent to 726.32 million in September from 716.19 million in August.

Top five service providers, which include Reliance Jio (405.65 million customers), Bharti Airtel (166 million), Vodafone Idea (119.85 million), BSNL (24.83 million) and Atria Convergence (1.73 million), accounted for 98.86 per cent of the market share, the report said.