VIL, Airtel lose over 5.9 mn subscribers in June; Jio adds 4.5 mn: Trai

Vodafone Idea Ltd (VIL) and Airtel lost about 48.2 lakh and 11.3 lakh users, respectively, in June, even as rival Reliance Jio added nearly 45 lakh customers strengthening its hold in the mobile telephony market, Trai's subscriber tally for the month showed.

India's overall wireless subscriber base shrunk by 0.28 per cent to 114 crore at the end of June 2020, recording declines in both urban and rural areas, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (Trai) monthly subscription data.

Monthly decline rates of urban and rural mobile subscription were 0.18 per cent and 0.40 per cent, respectively, data showed.

The share of urban and rural mobile subscribers in total wireless user base was pegged at 54.3 per cent and 45.7 per cent, respectively at the end of June.

With exception to Reliance Jio -- India's youngest, now the largest telco, all other operators lost mobile subscribers in June. During the month, Jio gained 44.9 lakh subscribers, propping up its wireless customer base to 39.7 crore.

Bharti Airtel lost almost 11.3 lakh users in the mobile category, and its subscriber base stood at 31.6 crore subscribers in June. The subscriber base of Bharti Airtel included Tata Teleservices.

VIL's subscriber base fell by 48.2 lakh during the month to 30.5 crore.

The total number of broadband subscribers in India rose from 683.7 million (68.3 crore) at the end of May to 698.23 million (69.8 crore) at the end of June, a growth rate of nearly two per cent.

Top five service providers constituted 98.93 per cent market share of the total broadband subscribers at the end of June, Trai said.

"These service providers were Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (398.31 million), Bharti Airtel (151.30 million), Vodafone Idea (116.45 million), BSNL (23 million)...," it said.