Jio, Airtel, Vi lose over 10 mn mobile subscribers in Sep; BSNL adds users

Private telcos Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea cumulatively lost over one crore wireless subscribers in September, even as state-owned BSNL surprised with net additions of almost 8.5 lakh mobile users, as per monthly data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).

Reliance Jio lost 79.69 lakh mobile subscribers in September compared to the previous month, Bharti Airtel (14.34 lakh users), and Vodafone Idea (15.53 lakh users).

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) added 8.49 lakh users to its wireless subscriber tally.

The wireless subscriber base of Reliance Jio stood at 46.37 crore in September, while that of Bharti Airtel was 38.34 crore. The wireless user base of Vodafone Idea was 21.24 crore as of September 2024.

BSNL's gains in September pushed its subscriber tally to 9.18 crore.

It is pertinent to note that the three private telcos had hiked mobile tariffs by 10-27 per cent in July.

BSNL, however, refrained from following the footsteps of its larger rivals, and its Chairman and Managing Director Robert Ravi recently ruled out an increase in tariffs, in the near future.

"We can clearly say we are not going to increase our tariffs in the near future," Ravi had told reporters in October.

BSNL, in fact, is looking to proactively woo subscribers and claw back market share, and recently launched a slew of new offerings and initiatives, ranging from spam blockers to automated SIM kiosks and direct-to-device services.

According to Trai subscriber data, with the sole exception of Odisha, all other service areas showed a decline in their wireless subscribers during September 2024.

"As per the information received from 1,167 operators in September 2024, in comparison to 1,219 operators in August 2024, the total Broadband Subscribers decreased from 949.21 million at the end of August-24 to 944.40 million at the end of September-24 with a monthly decline rate of 0.51 per cent," Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) said.

As of September 30, 2024, Jio led the chart of broadband subscribers (wired and wireless) with a subscriber count of 47.7 crore, followed by Bharti Airtel (28.5 crore), and Vodafone India (12.6 crore). BSNL was fourth in that list with a subscriber count of 3.7 crore.

India's total wireless subscribers decreased to 1,153.72 million at the end of September 2024, thereby registering a monthly decline rate of 0.87 per cent. The monthly decline rate of urban and rural wireless subscriptions was 0.80 per cent and 0.95 per cent, respectively.