Jio sees near 100% sequential growth in new subscribers in March: Trai data

According to the latest data by TRAI, Bharti Airtel added 4 million subscribers to its network, followed by Vodafone Idea with 1.1 million users and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd with 194,310.

India's largest telecom operator Reliance Jio added 7.9 million users in March, nearly double the number of subscribers in February.

According to the latest data by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), Bharti Airtel added 4 million subscribers to its network, followed by Vodafone Idea with 1.1 million users and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd with 194,310.

In March 2021, Jio announced a JioPhone 2021 offer under which customers can get up to two years of "unlimited" recharge and a JioPhone device for Rs 1,999.

Under the new JioPhone 2021 offer, customers can get a new JioPhone along with 24 months of unlimited service that includes unlimited calls and 2GB per month data for the entire period at Rs 1,999.

As per TRAI data, the number of telephone subscribers in India increased from 1,187.90 million at the end of February-21 to 1,201.20 million at the end of March-21, thereby showing a monthly growth rate of 1.12%.

Urban telephone subscriptions increased from 657.72 million at the end of February-21 to 663.77 million at the end of March-21 and the rural subscription also increased from 530.18 million to 537.42 million during the same period.

The monthly growth rates of urban and rural telephone subscriptions were 0.92% and 1.37% respectively during the month of March-21.

Number of active wireless subscribers in March, 2021 was 993.92 million.

As on 31st March, 2021, the private access service providers held 89.68% market share of the wireless subscribers whereas BSNL and MTNL, the two PSU access service providers, had a market share of only 10.32%.

Wireline subscribers increased from 20.19 million at the end of February-21 to 20.24 million at the end of March-21.

TRAI report said, in the month of March, 2021, the number of broadband subscribers increased from 765.09 million at the end of

February-21 to 778.09 million at the end of March-21 with a monthly growth rate of 1.70%.

Top five service providers constituted 98.82% market share of the total broadband subscribers at the end of March-21. These service providers were Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (425.51 million), Bharti Airtel (191.93 million), Vodafone Idea (123.61 million), BSNL (26.04 million) and Atria Convergence (1.85 million).