Jio, Airtel Lose Subscribers In July As BSNL Gains: TRAI

Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd., Bharti Airtel Ltd. and Vodafone Idea Ltd. lost subscribers in the month of July while BSNL Ltd. or Bharat Sanchar Nigam added subscribers, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.   

Reliance Jio lost 7.58 lakh subscribers whereas BSNL added 29.3 lakh subscribers in July. Bharti Airtel lost 16.9 lakh users and Vodafone Idea lost 14.1 lakh users. 

Vodafone Idea's wireless subscriber base fell to 12.672 crore. 

"The total broadband subscribers increased from 94.07 crore at the end of June to 94.61 crore at the end of July with a monthly growth rate of 0.58%,"  TRAI said in a release.

The release also said that the private access service providers held 92.25% market share of the wireless subscribers whereas BSNL and MTNL, the two public sector access service providers, had a market share of only 7.75%. 

The number of Machine-To-Machine cellular mobile connections increased from 5.25 crore at the end of June to 5.36 crore at the end of July.

M2M cellular mobile connections are used for devices to exchange information over cellular networks. Unlike traditional SIM cards, M2M SIM cards can switch networks dynamically and provide global connectivity.

Bharti Airtel holds the highest number of M2M cellular mobile connections at 2.84 crore, with a market share of 53.02%, followed by Vodafone Idea (27.71%), Reliance Jio (13.68%), and BSNL (5.58%).

In July, a total of 1.36 crore requests were received for Mobile Number Portability, which is a service that allows users to retain their phone numbers when switching to a different mobile network operator.

Cumulative MNP requests increased from 99.74 crore at the end of June to 101.113 crore at the end of July.