Reliance Jio, India's largest telecom operator, added the most wireline subscribers in May 2023. The telco managed to add 3,25,336 wireline subscribers during the month. The data has been shared by TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) in its monthly telecom performance report. It is interesting to note that in the month of May 2023, the overall wireline subscriber base went down from 29.39 million in the previous month to 29.36 million, a net loss of about 0.02 million users.
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Reliance Jio, leveraging the brand of JioFiber, managed to add 0.32 million or 3,25,336 million wireline users. Bharti Airtel, a fierce competitor of Reliance Jio, managed to add 0.12 million or 1,25,586 wireline users. Airtel and Jio weren't the only two players that added wireline users. Tata Tele added 17,349 users, Quadrant added 6453 users, and V-Con Mob & Infra Pvt Ltd added 99 users.
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As per the report, players, including Vodafone Idea (Vi), Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), Reliance Communications, and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL), lost wireline users. During May 2023, Vodafone Idea held a 2.35% market share in the wireline subscriber segment. Jio and Airtel held the maximum share with 33.18% and 25.12%, respectively. BSNL was the third-largest player in the segment with a 22.26% market share, followed by MTNL in the fourth position with a 7.79% market share.
The growth in absolute numbers for the wireline market isn't as rapid as it is for wireless mobile services. One of the key reasons is the price factor. Wireline broadband services are quite expensive compared to wireless mobile services when compared on a month-by-month basis. However, another big limitation is the availability of fiber internet services.
Internet service providers (ISPs) across the nation are now offering fiber internet services to customers. But the challenging task for them is to deploy and maintain fiber throughout the country. In the coming months, the overall wireline subscriber segment is expected to grow at a decent pace.
