Jio adds 1.76 mn customers in Oct; Airtel's customer base shrinks

Vodafone Idea continues its losing streak and shed 964,245 subscribers, says Trai data

Reliance Jio added 1.76 million wireless subscribers in October when Bharti Airtel’s customer base shrank by nearly half a million—the first such loss for the company since May.

Vodafone Idea (Vi) continues its losing streak and shed 964,245 subscribers, according to the data by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.

Jio, which reported losing 19 million customers in September, recouped some of its loss and increasing its base to 426.5 million. The company’s second quarter result in October reported a loss of 11 million customers. It had blamed the loss to an accounting correction and said it didn’t affect its financial performance.

Airtel’s customer base reduced to 353.9 million as it lost 489,709 users in October. Vodafone Idea’s customer base stood at 269.02 million. Both Airtel and Vi added customers in rural areas while Jio reported a loss in rural areas.

Overall wireless subscriber base registered a flattish growth of 0.02 per cent in October. At the end of the month total customer count stood at 1.16 billion.  

Except Haryana, West Bengal, Karnataka, Jammu & Kashmir, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Odisha and Kolkata, all other service areas have shown growth in their wireless subscribers in October, TRAI said.