Both Airtel and Jio telcos have targeted rural areas for their subscriber growth. As a result, many more customers are joining both the telcos due to less competition. Meanwhile, Jio is again trying to capture a larger market share by offering low-cost SIM-locked 4G phones such as the JioPhone, JioBharat Phone and JioPhone Next. But, India’s two other telecom operators BSNL and Vodafone Idea are not seeing any growth in subscriber numbers. Rather, these two telcos are surprisingly reducing the number of subscribers day by day.
Recently the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) released the monthly performance index report of the telecom sectors. And according to that report, VI lost 1.5 million (15 lakh) wireless subscribers in January 2024 and more than 1 million (10 lakh) wireless subscribers in February. That means VI said goodbye to about 2.5 million (25 lakh) customers in these two months.
Meanwhile, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd lost 1.18 million (11.8 lakh) and 0.17 million (1.7 lakh) users in January and February 2024 respectively. This means BSNL has lost a total of 1.35 million (13.5 lakh) users.
Meanwhile, like every time, Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel’s wireless user base has grown massively. According to the report, Jio’s wireless users grew by 4.1 million (41 lakh) in January and 3.5 million (35 lakh) in February. That means a total of 7.6 million (76 lakh) customers have connected to Jio in two months. And, Airtel added 0.75 million (7.5 lakh) subscribers in January and 1.5 million (15 lakh) in February, making a total of 2.25 million (22.5 lakh) subscribers in two months.
Number of Active Users of Telecom Companies –
As per the report, Jio had 426.7 million (42.67 crore) active users in February. And Airtel’s VLR reached 382.60 million (38.26 crore) active subscribers.
However, Vodafone Idea’s active subscriber base stood at 193.85 million (Rs 19.385 crore) due to a decline in subscribers in the last two months. And BSNL’s active user count has come down to 48.33 million (4.833 crore).
Incidentally, Jio currently ranks first in the wireless subscriber segment in India with over 467.59 million (46.759 crore) subscribers. Airtel is second with 381.01 million (38.101 crore) users. Also, Vodafone Idea is currently in third place with 220.50 million (22.05 crore) subscribers, despite a significant subscriber decline over the past five years.
