Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has outshined the private telecom operators in adding new subscribers during August 2024. From the quarterly data, we know that Jio has lost subscribers in Q2 FY25. Thus, it won't be a surprise to see Jio's numbers in negative even for September 2024 when TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) will release the data. But what's interesting is that both Vi (Vodafone Idea) and Bharti Airtel have also lost customers during the quarter, at least that's what the data suggests so far. Let's take a look at the data for August 2024.
Read More - BSNL Successfully Tests Homegrown 5G RAN & Core in 3.6 GHz, 700 MHz Bands: Report
BSNL, Jio, Airtel and Vi Subscriber Addition/Subtraction During August 2024
From the TRAI data, BSNL has added 2.53 million wireless users while Vi lost 1.87 million users, Airtel lost 2.4 million users, and Jio lost 4 million users. BSNL is adding subscribers of the private telecom operators because of tariff hikes which private telecom implemented in July 2024. Overall, the number of wireless subscribers went down by 5.7 million for the industry.
Bharti Airtel maintained the best VLR subscribers percentage, as 99.24% of its user base was active during the month. At the same time, for Jio, it was 93.86% users, Vodafone Idea's VLR subscribers percentage was 85.34% while BSNL's only 58.74% of the subscriber base was active.
Read More - BSNL 4G 39000 Sites Commissioned by TCS: Report
Over 14.6 million Mobile Number Portability (MNP) requests were made during the month. This high number is likely attributed to the tariff hikes from the private telcos. Jio, Airtel and Vi anticipated SIM consolidation post the hikes and aren't too worried about the numbers going down in the short term because overall, their business fundamentals have improved. Vodafone Idea management has even said that the customers they have lost to BSNL will return at some point when they want good 4G services back.
