Jio wireless market share surpasses Airtel, Voda still leads race

Airtel inches forward on broadband base

Reliance Jio has surpassed Bharti Airtel to have the second largest market share in terms of wireless subscribers in the country, according to subscription data shared by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

While Vodafone Idea (VIL) still leads with 33.36 per cent market share, Jio now has 27.80 per cent and Airtel has 27.58 per cent market share, respectively. Bharti Airtel’s market share was 27.6 per cent in May and VIL had 33.4 per cent of the wireless market.

Total wireless subscribers marginally declined from 1,162.30 million at the end of April to 1,161.86 million at the end of May, thereby registering a monthly decline of 0.04 per cent. Wireless subscription in rural areas declined from 509.95 million to 505.59 million at the end of May. However, wireless subscription in urban areas increased by 4 million to 656.27 million. Monthly growth rates of rural and urban wireless subscription were -0.85 per cent and 0.60 per cent, respectively.

The largest subscriber erosion was witnessed by VIL with the telco losing 5.6 million subscribers during the month compared to 1.5 million subscriber erosions of Airtel. Jio picked up the pace slightly compared to April, adding 8.1 million subscribers.

On the broadband front, Airtel has picked up slightly at the cost of VIL. Jio leads the broadband race with 55.54 per cent share. Mobile broadband growth has however slowed since the Feb-March 2018.  Trai reported 563 million wireless subscribers in May.

In the wireless segment, Circles of Category ‘A’ and Category ‘B’ showed a monthly decline in their subscribers in May. However, on a yearly basis, circles in all categories showed positive growth in their wireless subscribers during the month. Rural teledensity continued to decline.