Jio adds 85.39 lakh users in July; Airtel, Idea lose 60 lakh users combined

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio added 85.39 lakh mobile users in July, while arch rivals Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea lost a cumulative 60 lakh users during the month, according to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) data.

The overall telephone subscribers in India, mobile and landline combined, increased to 118.9 crore at the end of July, registering a monthly growth of 0.2 per cent. The mobile subscriber base of Reliance Jio stood at 33.97 crore, as the company added 85.39 lakh users during July. In contrast, the two older operators Airtel and Vodafone Idea continued to experience subscriber churn.

Sunil Mittal-led Bharti Airtel (including Tata Teleservices numbers) lost 25.8 lakh mobile users during the month, bringing down its subscriber base to 32.85 crore. Vodafone Idea, on the other hand, lost 33.9 lakh customers as its base fell to 38 crore users.

Fund-starved Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), that has been in the news over delay in salary and vendor payments, was the only other operator besides Jio to acquire subscribers during July. BSNL added an impressive 2.88 lakh mobile users in July, shoring up its user base to 11.6 crore subscribers.

Also read: Jio sprints past Bharti in subscriber numbers, but revenue per unit falls

In the headline numbers, telephone subscriber base in both urban and rural India saw a growth. Urban subscribers increased to 67.8 crore in July compared to 67.5 crore in June, while rural subscription increased a tad to 51.1 crore in the same period, data by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) showed.

The overall teledensity in India increased to 90.23 per cent at the end of July. The number of broadband subscribers increased to 60.4 crore at July-end, rising 1.60 per cent over the previous month.

“Top five service providers constituted 98.95 per cent market share of the total broadband subscribers at the end of July 19,” it said.

Reliance Jio led the tally in broadband (download speeds greater than or equal to 512 Kbps) subscriber numbers with 339.79 million, followed by Bharti Airtel (123.94 million) and Vodafone Idea (110.92 million).