Jio gains 649,000 users in August, Airtel adds 138,000, shows Trai data

India’s largest telecom operator Reliance Jio gained 649,000 mobile users in August, leading the subscriber addition tally, according to latest data by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai). Bharti Airtel added 138,000 users while Vodafone Idea lost 833,000 subscribers during August.
 
Reliance Jio's mobile base stands at 443.8 million, that of Bharti Airtel’s is 354.1 million and Voda Idea 271 million.
 
In July, Reliance Jio gained 6.5 million subscribers, cem­enting its market lead, while Bharti Airtel added 1.9 million customers during the month. Jio's subscriber base stood at 443.2 million in July, according to the data. Airtel’s total wireless subscriber count rose to 354 million in July. Vodafone Idea, which got a fresh lease of life with a new telecom package announced recently, lost 1.4 million wireless users during July, as its subscriber count slipped to 271.9 million.
 
As of July, Reliance Jio has 37.34 per cent wireless market share, Bharti Airtel is at 29.83 per cent and Vodafone Idea at 22.91 per cent. The telecom sector has got a shot in the arm with the Cabinet approving a blockbuster relief package for the industry. This includes a four-year break for companies from paying statutory dues, permission to share scarce airwaves, change in the definition of revenue on which levies are paid, and allowing 100 per cent foreign investment through the automatic route.

 
The measures are aimed at providing relief to companies like Vodafone Idea that have to pay thousands of crores in unprovisioned past statutory dues. They also incl­ude the scrapping of spectrum usage charge for airwaves acquired in future auctions.
 
Meanwhile, Trai data sho­wed that the number of telephone subscribers in India increased to 1.2 billion at the end of July 2021, a monthly growth rate of 0.57 per cent.