Jio climbs to the top, becomes largest telecom operator in Gujarat

In less than four-and-a-half years, telecom giant Jio has climbed to the top position with maximum subscribers in Gujarat.

As per the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) subscription numbers ended in December 2020, Jio added 3.36 lakh mobile numbers in Gujarat and became the largest telecom operator of circle with a total base of 2.54 crore subscribers.

Jio started its services in September 2016. By end of December 2020, it climbed to the top-most position in the circle. The TRAI report shows that Vodafone Idea lost about 1.62 lakh subscribers and settled at the second position in Gujarat with 2.5 crore users.

Jio first became the largest revenue-generating operator in the state with over 45 per cent of revenue market share. Now, it has become the largest operator with maximum customers and a market share of 37.51 per cent.

Apart from Jio, only Airtel posted a positive growth of 2.55 lakh subscribers in the state during December. With a total of 1.14 crore user base, Airtel has 16.88 per cent of the customer market share.

State-owned BSNL lost about 2.2 lakh subscribers and had 8.69 per cent customer market share with 58.91 lakh subscribers.

The total net additions of mobile numbers in Gujarat increased by 2.09 lakh to 6.77 crore in December 2020. Jio and Vodafone Idea together had a share of 74.42 per cent.

Nationally too, Airtel and Jio were the only gainers of new customers in December. Airtel led the mobile segment with an addition of over 40 lakh new customers and Jio added 4.78 lakh new customers.

However, the total subscriber base in the country fell marginally to 115 crore in December 2020 with Vodafone Idea, BSNL and MTNL losing a bulk of their customers.