Airtel adds 4.37 mn users in Nov, Voda Idea loses subscribers: TRAI data

Bharti Airtel added the highest number of subscribers in November, ahead of Reliance Jio, even as Vodafone Idea lost customers during the period, according to the latest TRAI data.

Airtel added a staggering 43.7 lakh subscribers, pushing up its user base to 33.46 crore, while rival Jio added 19.36 lakh subscribers.

India's largest telecom operator Reliance Jio's subscriber base stood at 40.82 crore as on November 2020, as per monthly telecom subscription data released by sector regulator TRAI.

Vodafone Idea lost 28.9 lakh subscribers and its user base shrunk to 28.99 crore in November.

"The number of telephone subscribers in India increased from 1,171.80 million at the end of October-20 to 1,175.27 million at the end of November-20, thereby showing a monthly growth rate of 0.30 per cent," the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said.

Urban telephone subscription increased to 648.6 million at the end of November 2020 (647.36 million in October), and rural subscription rose to 526.67 million during the same period (from 524.44 million).

"The monthly growth rates of urban and rural telephone subscription were 0.20 per cent and 0.41 per cent respectively during the month of November-20," TRAI said.

The overall teledensity in India increased to 86.56 at the end of November from 86.38 in October.

Of the total wireless subscribers (1,155.20 million), 968.42 million were active, pegging the proportion of such subscribers at almost 83.83 per cent.

"Bharti Airtel has the maximum proportion (96.63 per cent) of its active wireless subscribers (VLR) as against its total wireless subscribers...," TRAI said.

The top five service providers constituted 98.84 per cent market share of the total broadband subscribers at the end of November.

These included Reliance Jio (410.17 million), Bharti Airtel (174.47 million), Vodafone Idea (120.97 million) and state-owned BSNL (26.13 million).