Airtel Is Witnessing a Steady Growth in Wireless and Wired Subscriber Base: TRAI Data

Reported by Srikapardhi November 22nd, 2022 at 03:40 pm

Bharti Airtel witnessed a net addition of 412,767 wireless subscribers in September as per the data reported by TRAI. Airtel witnessed steady growth in its wireless and wired subscriber base for the last three months. The telco continuously added wireless subscribers for the last 3 months in two circles (Haryana and Odisha) where the entry-level tariff was hiked.

Highlights

Bharti Airtel holds 31.80 % market share in terms of Wireless subscribers as on September 30, 2022.
As of September 30, 2022, the Wireline Subscriber Base of Bharti Airtel stood at 5.27 million.

Bharti Airtel has been very aggressive in announcing 5G services and the same time, leading the Industry to correct the unsustainable tariffs induced by competition in the market. At this juncture, we know telecom enthusiasts would be curious to understand the subscriber scenario and the associated aspects of the telco. Thankfully, TRAI has released the Telecom Subscription Data for September 2022, and let's now look into the wireless and wired subscriber metrics concerning Bharti Airtel.

To make it easy, we have mapped the cities and airports where Airtel 5G is announced against the respective circles' wireless subscriber base and added comments

Wireless Subscriber Data for the Last 3 Months

Sl. No	Circle	Jul 2022	Aug 2022	Sep 2022	VLR (%)	5G Announcements	Comment
1	Andhra Pradesh & Telangana	31662370	31693515	31774350	99.03	Hyderabad	Continuous subscriber addition.
2	Assam	1,02,67,397	1,03,50,589	1,04,38,124	99.2	Guwahati	Continuous subscriber addition.
3	Bihar	3,88,16,333	3,91,54,621	3,93,67,223	91.17
4	Delhi	16304284	16358878	16438020	102.66	Yes	Continuous subscriber addition.
5	Gujarat	11503148	11371451	11252833	107.85
6	Haryana	6240683	6281489	6314298	106.26	Panipat, Gurugram	Recently Tariff Hiked Circle. Subscriber Growth is recorded.
7	Himachal Pradesh	3320505	3351375	3368664	102.22
8	J & K	5835259	5848363	5870318	92.5
9	Karnataka	30818598	30882862	30920839	96.37	Bengaluru, Kempegowda International Airport	Continuous subscriber addition.
10	Kerala	7827365	7808380	7821693	103.97
11	Kolkata	5707578	5682836	5687241	96.42
12	Madhya Pradesh	15341652	15344621	15342537	97.48
13	Maharashtra	20441867	20438915	20547335	106.22	Nagpur, Pune Airport	Gained subscribers in Sept.
14	Mumbai	9372923	9359238	9390935	93.69	Yes	Gained subscribers in Sept.
15	North East	5744822	5749887	5780529	105.01
16	Odisha	11214048	11234951	11302188	98.04		Recently Tariff Hiked Circle. A good subscriber growth is recorded.
17	Punjab	11993803	12027193	12053572	99.68
18	Rajasthan	22039493	22159978	22111587	99.31
19	Tamil Nadu	27138932	27082054	27160209	100.65	Chennai	Gained subscribers in Sept.
20	U.P.(E)	36775541	36508080	36164407	96.88	Varanasi, Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport	Losing Subscribers.
21	U.P.(W )	18775362	18758857	18692418	100.01
22	West Bengal	16339802	16359837	16421417	94.38	Siliguri	Continuous subscriber addition.
23	Total	363481765	363807970	364220737	98.56		Industry Highest VLR.
24	Net Addition	513472	326205	412767			Overall continuous subscriber addition.

Bharti Airtel holds 31.80 % market share in terms of Wireless subscribers as on September 30, 2022. The telco witnessed a monthly growth of 0.11% in wireless subscribers, and with highest VLR of 98.56% recorded for the same month.

Also Read: Airtel Tariff Hike in Haryana and Odisha a Positive Move: ICICI Securities

Airtel 5G Launch Announcements:

As of today, Airtel 5G Plus Service is available at 3 Airports and 11 Cities. You can read about Airtel 5G Launch Timeline and Complete Locations of 5G Availability from the link below.

Also Read: Airtel 5G: A Look at the Aggressive 5G Rollout Timeline

Wireline Subscriber Base for Last 3 Months:

Sl. No	Circle	Jul-22	Aug-22	Sep-22	5G Announcements
1	Andhra Pradesh & Telangana	367718	376860	388080	Hyderabad
2	Assam	12122	13172	14230	Guwahati
3	Bihar	0	0	45704
4	Delhi	1787467	1806892	1826346	Yes
5	Gujarat	162226	166291	166931
6	Haryana	61897	63483	85590	Panipat, Gurugram
7	Himachal Pradesh	1787	1850	2953
8	J & K	46507	47887	65203
9	Karnataka	953479	968656	983541	Bengaluru, Kempegowda International Airport
10	Kerala	81692	82525	83486
11	Kolkata	172826	173913	177461
12	Madhya Pradesh	374060	381161	390766
13	Maharashtra	305167	313389	325396	Nagpur, Pune Airport
14	Mumbai	486075	491343	497526	Yes
15	North East	0	0	0
16	Odisha	0	1066	1046
17	Punjab	193053	196752	199686
18	Rajasthan	157827	164538	169407
19	Tamil Nadu	699543	708694	728365	Chennai
20	U.P.(E)	122755	144667	148497	Varanasi, Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport
21	U.P.(W )	91754	93939	95971
22	West Bengal	0	0	7578	Siliguri
23	Total	6077955	6197078	6403763
24	Net Addition		119123	206685

As of September 30, 2022, the Wireline Subscriber Base of Bharti Airtel stood at 5.27 million, and the Market Share of Wireline Subscribers stood at 24.19%.

Airtel Subscriber Base at the end of September 2022:

Broadband (wired + wireless) subscribers: 225.09 million with 27.58 % market share
Wireless Broadband Subscribers: 219.82 million

Also Read: Airtel Mobile Business Shows an Organic Growth

Conclusion:

Airtel witnessed overall growth in its wireless subscriber base for the last three months. In line with the insights we shared earlier about how - Airtel Mobile Business showed Organic growth - for the month of September as well, Airtel continued the addition of subscribers.

Now, with the tariff correction, let's see how the numbers fare going forward. As we believe more in organic growth, irrespective of consumer acceptance, there is a definite need for tariff correction, which has already started.

Reported By

Srikapardhi Telecom Analyst

Passionately following the Indian #Telecom Industry for over a decade from Business, Consumer and a Technical perspective. My primary focus area is Consumer & Digital Experience.