Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea Lost Over 5 Million Subscribers Together in September: Trai Data

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) today revealed ‘Telecom Subscription Data as on September 30, 2019.’ Going by the latest report, the total number of telephone subscribers in India increased from 1,191.81 million at the end of August 2019 to 1,195.24 million at the end of September 2019, showing a monthly growth rate of 0.29%. During the same month, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea combinedly lost over five million subscribers whereas Reliance Jio added nearly seven million new users. State-run telco BSNL continues to add new users, but in a very small number compared to Reliance Jio. But yes, it’s not losing subscribers like Airtel or Vodafone Idea which will come as a relief to the telco.

• Make Telecom Talk My Trusted Source
• 
• 

Reliance Jio Adds Nearly Seven Million New Users in September

Reliance Jio continues its aggressive subscriber addition as the telco managed to grab 6,983,146 new users in September 2019. Jio’ subscriber base already crossed 350 million and it’s on the course of reaching 400 million by the end of this financial year. Having said that, Reliance Jio added the least number of subscribers in September 2019 compared to the earlier months where its average subscriber addition every month was over eight million. Reliance Jio must have added more than ten million new users in October alone because of the introduction of discount offer on original JioPhone. For the unaware, Reliance Jio offered the JioPhone at just Rs 699.

But in mid-October, the telco came up with IUC Top-Up vouchers and also started charging customers for non-Jio voice calls. Some Jio customers already ported out to other networks like Airtel, Vodafone Idea and BSNL. At the end of September 2019, Reliance Jio has a market share of 30.26%, slightly behind Vodafone Idea’ share of 31.73%.