Mukesh Ambani-led telecom arm RIL lost 79.69 lakh subscribers in just 1 month, shows TRAI data
Private telcos Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea cumulatively lost over a million wireless subscribers in September, even as state-owned BSNL surprised with a net addition of nearly 8.5 lakh mobile users, according to monthly data all issued by TRAI.
Reliance Jio lost 79.69 lakh mobile subscribers in September compared to the previous month, Bharti Airtel (14.34 lakh users), and Vodafone Idea (15.53 lakh users).
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has added 8.49 lakh users to its wireless subscriber base.
Reliance Jio’s wireless subscriber base stood at 46.37 crore in September, while Bharti Airtel’s was 38.34 crore. Vodafone Idea’s wireless user base was 21.24 crore as of September 2024.
BSNL’s earnings in September increased its subscribers to 9.18 crore. It is worth mentioning that three private telcos have increased mobile phone prices by 10-27 percent in July.
BSNL, however, refrained from following in the footsteps of its biggest rivals, and its Chairman and Managing Director Robert Ravi recently ruled out a fare hike, in the near future.
“We can clearly say that we will not raise prices in the future,” Ravi told reporters in October. BSNL, in fact, is looking to further woo subscribers and claw market share, and has recently launched a host of new offerings and initiatives, from anti-spam to automated SIM kiosks and device-specific services.
According to TRAI subscriber data, except Odisha, all other service areas have shown a decline in their wireless subscribers in September 2024.
“According to the information received from 1,167 users in September 2024, compared to 1,219 employees in August 2024, the number of Broadband subscribers decreased from 949.21 million at the end of August-24 to 944.40 million at the end of September-24 month by month. a rate of decline of 0.51 percent,” the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said.
As of 30 September 2024, Jio led the broadband (wired and wireless) subscriber chart with 47.7 crore subscribers, followed by Bharti Airtel (28.5 crore), and Vodafone India (12.6 crore). BSNL was fourth in that list with 3.7 crore subscribers.
India’s total wireless subscribers fell to 1,153.72 million at the end of September 2024, thereby registering a monthly decline rate of 0.87 percent.
