Reliance Jio adds 10 times more users than rest of the players in July

Telecom operator Reliance Jio dominated the telecom sector in July by adding over 10 times more subscribers than total new customers added by rest of the players, according to data released by Trai on Tuesday.

The total telecom subscriber base in July grew by less than 1 per cent to 1.17 billion with net addition of over 10 million customers after taking in loss of around 2.4 million customers jointly by Tata Teleservices, Reliance Communications and MTNL.

The mobile customer base increased to 1.15 billion in July from 1.14 billion in June. Reliance Jio led the growth in mobile segment by adding over 11.7 million customers while rest of the players could add altogether 1.1 million customers.

Vodafone, which was operated as an independent entity in July, could add over 600,000 customers. It was followed by Bharti Airtel which added 313,000 customers, state-run BSNL 225,000 and Idea Cellular could add only 5,489 customers in the reported month.

Tata Teleservices was biggest loser in July as it lost 2.35 million customers, followed by RCom and MTNL which lost 31,814 and 9,914 customers, respectively.

The fixed line segment connections declined to 22.2 million in July from 22.4 million in June, according to the monthly subscribers report published by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

The number of broadband subscribers increased to 460 million in July from 447 million in June. Mobile broadband connections alone contributed 441 million customers to the total kitty.

"Top five service providers constituted 97.75 per cent market share of the total broadband subscribers at the end of July 2018. These service providers were Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (22.7 crore), Bharti Airtel (9.53 crore), Vodafone (6.37 crore), Idea Cellular (4.35 crore ) and BSNL (2 crore)," the report said.

The overall tele-density in India increased to 90.44 in July from 89.72 in June.