Vodafone-Idea Continues To Lead India Telecom Market, As Jio Gains 8 Mn Subscribers

Reliance Jio and state-owned BSNL were the only telecom providers to have a net gain in subscribers at the end of July 2019, according to the latest data released by TRAI.

While Vodafone-Idea and Airtel lost subscribers overall, Vodafone-Idea leads the telecom industry in terms of market share, with Jio in second place.

The data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) tracks the changes in the telecom market between June and July 2019. Vodafone-Idea led the market with 32.53% market share, followed by Jio in the second position with 29.8% and Bharti Airtel at third with 28.12% market share.

Jio is on track to overtake Vodafone-Idea in the coming months if it continues to attract subscribers at the expense of other service providers at the current rate.

In July, Reliance Jio witnessed a 2.58% month-on-month (MoM) growth rate, registering 8.5 Mn subscribers. On the other hand, Vodafone Idea witnessed a negative growth rate of 0.88% with 3.3 Mn net subscriber loss and Bharti Airtel saw a net fall of 2.5 Mn subscribers.

BSNL, despite its profitability and operational issues, is the only other service provider to mark a positive growth, with 290K net gain in subscribers. Meanwhile, its market share has remained constant with 9.98%

As per TRAI data, the total wireless or telecom subscriber base in India increased from 1,165.46 Mn in June 2019 to 1,168.31 Mn in July, which is a net addition of just under 3 Mn subscribers and a monthly growth rate of 0.24%. In urban India, the number of subscribers grew to 659.87 Mn for July 2019, and in the rural areas, the number of subscribers grew to 508.45 Mn with a monthly growth rate of 0.40% and 0.05% respectively.

While that’s the overall subscriber base, TRAI found that 972.38 Mn wireless subscribers were active on the date of peak usage for July 2019, which is around 83.23% of the total subscriber base. Airtel led the market in terms of usage on the date of peak active usage for July.

While growth was seen in nearly all circles that TRAI measures, Bihar, UP-East, Kolkata, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat saw a net subscriber fall for the month. The North East circle saw the highest growth in subscribers for July 2019.

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