Bharti Airtel gained 1.65 million subscribers in January, says Trai

Jio controlled nearly 85 per cent of all 5G fixed wireless access connections

Bharti Airtel gained the most number of subscribers in January, with 1.65 million new wireless users, while Reliance Jio added 0.68 million users, data from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) showed on Monday.

 

Vodafone Idea (Vi) continued to lose subscribers, with 1.33 million users leaving the telecom operator in January. Meanwhile, state-owned telecom operator BSNL shed just 0.15 million users in January. With BSNL keeping tariffs unchanged, a large number of subscribers using entry-level plans had shifted to the telco in July last year, but the additions have reversed in the last few months of 2024. The telco is currently aiming to roll out its homegrown 4G network nationwide with 1 lakh towers by June.

 

Jio and Airtel’s mobile wireless market share continued to inch up in January, at 40.46 per cent and 33.61 per cent, respectively. The rise was primarily at the expense of Vi, whose share fell to 17.89 per cent. BSNL commanded a 7.95 per cent market share, falling below the 8 per cent mark in December.

 

The overall number of mobile phone connections in India increased by 0.55 per cent in January. The high growth rate was due to Trai changing its subscriber reporting norms from January onwards, which now require 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) subscriptions to be counted as wireless subscribers, as opposed to wireline subscribers, as had been the case so far.

 

There were 5.72 million 5G FWA subscribers at January-end in India, of which 84.74 per cent, or 4.8 million subscribers, were using Reliance Jio. About 15.26 per cent of users, or 0.87 million, were using Bharti Airtel. FWA delivers high-speed internet using wireless signals instead of traditional wired infrastructure like fibre or cable. A dedicated customer premises equipment (CPE), such as a fixed outdoor antenna or an indoor router, picks up signals from nearby mobile towers and converts them into Wi-Fi or Ethernet.

 

Trai data also revealed that 14.14 million subscribers had submitted requests for mobile number portability (MNP) in the latest month, up from December’s 13.85 million.

 

Meanwhile, the number of wireline subscribers showed a steep decline in January, shrinking 10.8 per cent to 35.03 million in January, down from 39.27 million in December.

 

Airtel expands anti-spam service to international calls, texts

 

Airtel on Monday announced that its artificial intelligence-powered spam detection tool will now screen and alert customers to all spam calls and SMS messages originating from international networks. The tool has flagged over 27.5 billion calls as spam to its customers. Customers will now receive spam alerts for calls and SMS messages in nine regional languages, with plans to add more in the future. The new feature has been necessitated by a sudden 12 per cent rise in overseas spam calls in the last six months, Airtel said.