Mobile subscriber base swells to 975 mn in November

Bharti Airtel continues to hold the top position with 29.68% market share

Led by healthy additions by the three incumbent operators, the mobile subscribers base has grown to 975.40 million in November, industry body COAI said.

According to the data shared by COAI, Bharti Airtel added 4.34 million subscribers in November followed by Idea Cellular with 3.19 million and Vodafone's 2.70 million. Aircel and Telenor though continue to lose subscribers. The numbers of Reliance Jio for the month of November are not known as the company did not share its numbers with COAI.

According to data sourced from Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, Jio had 145.96 million subscribers at the end of October. The overall number of 975.40 million also includes the figures of Reliance Jio and MTNL by the end of October 2017, COAI added.

Amongst individual companies, Bharti Airtel continues to hold the top position, with 29.68 per cent market share with a total subscriber base to 289.54 million. Airtel is closely followed by Vodafone India, which ended November with 211.03 million subscribers, while Idea Cellular stood at 194.07 million subscribers at the end of the eleventh month of the year.

The report, which also provides mobile subscriber numbers for individual circles, showed that UP (East) circle remained at the top with total 84.99 million subscribers, while Maharashtra remained at second position with a total of 81.50 million mobile subscribers.