Bharti Airtel has emerged as the top gainer in wireless subscribers in the circles of West Bengal and Mumbai, according to the data published by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) highlighting the telecom subscription data for May 2023, Airtel said.
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Growth in West Bengal
In West Bengal, Airtel has witnessed over 100,000 users choosing its network in just one month. This substantial increase propelled Airtel's user base to over 17 million. In contrast, both Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea experienced losses in their subscriber counts during the same period.
The TRAI data revealed that Airtel's total wireless subscribers reached 17.02 million in May 2023, up from 16.9 million in the previous month. This shows a favourable uptake of Airtel connections, with an additional 116.5K users choosing Airtel in the West Bengal circle alone.
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Milestone in Mumbai
Airtel said Mumbai also witnessed impressive growth in Airtel's wireless subscriptions. More than 170,000 consumers joined Airtel's network in May, enabling the company to achieve a significant milestone of over 10 million wireless subscribers in the Mumbai circle.
This marked a notable increase from its 9.8 million subscriber count in April 2023. However, Reliance Jio added over 70,000 new users, but Vodafone Idea struggled and lost more than 1 lakh subscribers in Mumbai.
Airtel said its wireless subscriber base across the two regions experienced a positive trajectory. In addition to the regional gains, Airtel said the TRAI report highlighted a contrasting trend between urban and rural areas.
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Airtel's Expanding Rural Presence
While there was a slight decrease in wireless subscriptions in urban areas (from 626.74 million at the end of April 2023 to 626.26 million at the end of May 2023), there was a notable increase in rural areas (from 516.39 million to 516.95 million) with 0.11 percent growth rate.
Airtel said it has played a pivotal role in this rural growth by adding 1.02 million rural subscribers across India, taking its Rural Subscribers count to over 180 million. Airtel is expected to continue its efforts to expand its subscriber base and strengthen its position.
