Reliance Jio gains 3.24 million users in Aug, Vi loses nearly 50K: Trai

Jio has consistently posted robust growth in user numbers, having added 2.2 million users in June

Telecom operator Reliance Jio continued to strengthen its position in the Indian telecom market by gaining 3.24 million new users in August, according to the latest data from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).

This was lower than the record 3.9 million users the company had acquired in July.

Jio has consistently posted robust growth in user numbers, adding 2.2 million users in June. The company's latest growth in August came largely at the expense of state-owned operator BSNL, which lost 2.22 million users. This was higher than the 1.4 million users it lost in July. MTNL also lost 4,280 users, much lower than the 33,623 wireless customers.

Vodafone Idea (Vi), which has been experiencing significant customer attrition for the past 18 months, saw the level of churn reduce in August. The company lost 49,782 users in the latest month, much lower than the 1.2 million users who left the company in July.

Bharti Airtel, the second-largest player in the market, saw its subscriber count increase by 1.21 million users. The company had added 1.5 million users in July, slightly up from 1.4 million in June.

In August, Jio had a subscriber market share of 38.8 per cent, while Airtel held a 32.7 per cent share and Vi's market share reached 19.88 per cent. BSNL had a market share of 8.36 per cent.

The overall number of mobile phone connections in India increased by 2.18 million in August, after rising 2.67 million in July, and 0.37 million users in June.

Trai data revealed that 12.67 million subscribers had submitted requests for Mobile Number Portability (MNP) in August, up from 11.7 million subscribers in July, signalling a sustained trend of Vi users migrating to other operators.