Jio adds 3.5 million customers in July, Voda Idea loses 3.7 million: Trai

Reliance Jio continued to expand its subscriber base, adding another 3.55 million users in July, the same month in which Vodafone Idea (Vi) lost 3.72 million users, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (Trai’s) latest data.

Bharti Airtel added a net 3.26 million wireless subscribers during the month.

The number of telephone subscribers in the country rose from 1,160.5 million at the end of June to 1,164 million at the end of July — reflecting a monthly growth rate of 0.3 per cent.

Urban telephone subscription rose from 636.83 million at the end of June to 638.46 million at the end of July. Rural subscription also increased from 523.69 million to 525.54 million during the same period.

The monthly growth rate for urban telephone subscription in July was 0.26 per cent, while that for rural was 0.35 per cent.

At the same time, the number of wireless subscribers also increased by 0.3 per cent. However, in this case, urban growth came in at 0.25 per cent, while rural areas showed a whopping 36 per cent increase.

According to the report, the current active subscriber base for Bharti Airtel stood at 97 per cent, while it was 89.3 per cent for Vi and 78 per cent for Reliance Jio.

The user base for wired broadband services showed a marginal rise to 20.13 million in July, from pre-Covid levels of 19 million in February. Wireless tele-density in India increased from 84.38 at the end of June to 84.56 at the end of July. While the urban wireless tele-density increased from 133.53 at the end of June to 133.64 at the end of July, for rural it rose from 58.72 to 58.91.

The share of urban and rural wireless subscribers in the total wireless subscriber base stood at 54.25 per cent and 45.75 per cent, respectively, at the end of July.

The overall tele-density increased from 85.85 per cent in June to 86.03 per cent in July. Urban tele-density increased from 137.35 per cent at the end of June to 137.47 per cent at the end of July, while the corresponding figures for rural were 58.96 per cent and 59.14 per cent, respectively. As of July 31, private access service providers held 89.33 per cent market share in the wireless subscriber base, whereas BSNL and MTNL had a market share of only 10.67 per cent.