It's nothing new that the state-owned telecommunications company Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and the third-largest private telco Vodafone Idea (Vi) are losing wireless subscribers month on month, while Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio are adding wireless subscribers for some time now. On Thursday, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) released its latest Telecom Subscription Data as of December 31, 2023, and the subscriber numbers confirmed the same. Let's have a quick overview of the same in the story ahead.
Losers
According to TRAI in December 2023, BSNL lost 0.15 million wireless subscribers, bringing its total subscriber base to 91.77 million, while MTNL lost 4,420 wireless subscribers, bringing the total to 1.93 million. Vodafone Idea lost 1.36 million subscribers, further reducing its overall wireless subscriber base to 223.04 million.
Gainers
Regarding the telcos that added wireless subscribers, Airtel added 1.85 million wireless subscribers, bringing its overall subscriber base to 381.73 million. On the other hand, Reliance Jio added 3.99 million wireless subscribers, bringing its subscriber base across all circles to 459.81 million.
VLR Percentage
Regarding the peak VLR (Visitor Location Register) percentage in December 2023, as always, Airtel recorded the highest with 98.90 percent, followed by Jio with 92.32 percent, Vodafone Idea with 88.18 percent, and BSNL with 52.90 percent, while MTNL with 25.98 percent.
Rural Wireless Subscribers
Regarding the Rural Subscriber Numbers reported by Telcos to TRAI, Airtel recorded around 185.15 million wireless subscribers, Vi around 108.54 million, BSNL around 28.71 million, and Reliance Jio around 202.59 million rural subscribers. So, these numbers suggest that BSNL actually has the lowest number of Rural subscribers.
Wireless Broadband
According to TRAI, in the wireless broadband segment (3G/4G/5G), Reliance Jio recorded 459.81 million wireless broadband users, Bharti Airtel 257.37 million, Vodafone Idea 127.28 million, and BSNL 21.28 million users.
