Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) today released the latest telecom subscriber numbers of Indian telecom operators for the month of October 2017. After continually losing subscribers for more than three months, Vodafone and Idea have added a decent amount of new subscribers, while Airtel still leads the list. As per the data released by COAI, India’s private telecom service providers have a total of 953.80 million subscribers at the end of October 2017.
The data also includes the figures of Reliance Jio and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) by the end of August 2017. Amongst the private telecom operators, Bharti Airtel has added 3.15 million subscribers during October 2017. The overall customer base of Airtel has now reached 285.20 million, and it currently has a market share of 29.90%.
Airtel is closely followed by Vodafone India, which added 879,413 new subscribers in October 2017. Vodafone ended October with 208.32 million subscribers on board. Idea Cellular added 713,408 subscribers in the same month, taking the overall base to 190.87 million with a market share of 20.01%.
As we already know, Reliance Jio is currently the fourth largest telecom operator in India with a subscriber base of close to 138 million. Aircel and Telenor are still struggling in the Indian market with the former losing 497,264 subscribers, and the latter lost 1,144,523 customers during the same month.
The report, which also provides mobile subscriber numbers for individual circles, showed that UP (East) circle remained at the top with total 83.62 million subscribers, while Maharashtra remained at second position with a total of 79.48 million mobile subscribers.
As you can clearly see, the telecom industry is slowly settling in the country with operators started gaining subscribers again. The change is due to the luring tariff plans by telecom operators in recent times. The top three telcos have upped the ante by offering roaming outgoing calls, extra data, and SMSes with the base unlimited combo plans.
Idea Cellular recently said that its Rs 179 tariff plan had gained customer traction ever since the unveiling. And so does Airtel and Vodafone's Rs. 349 tariff plans.
Talking about the increase in the subscriber base, Rajan S Mathews, Director General, COAI, said, “Our vision and aim is to bring mobile connectivity to every corner of the country, so it is encouraging to see more cities mounting a sizeable mobile customer base. This will help accelerate our journey towards a fully connected and empowered Digital India.”
