Airtel Added 2.3 Million More Subscribers Than Jio in September: TRAI
Airtel added over 2.3 million more wireless subscribers than Reliance Jio in the month of September, according to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) September 2020 subscription data report. Airtel reigned supreme with more than 3.77 million subscriber additions in the month, followed by Reliance Jio which managed to add 1.46 million new subscribers in comparison, TRAI said. At the end of September, Jio had 35.19 percent market share whereas Airtel stood second with 28.44 percent market share.
Airtel increased its wireless subscribers from 322.8 million in the month of August to 326.6 million in the month of September, according to TRAI’s Subscription Data report for the month of September. This resulted in an addition of 3.77 million subscribers in one month — the largest by any telco in that span. Jio, on the other hand, went up from 402.6 million wireless subscribers in August to 404.1 million subscribers in September. This is an addition of 1.46 million subscribers, much lesser than Airtel. Even in the month of August, Airtel had added over 1 million more subscribers than Jio.
BSNL also continued its rise in subscriber additions with 78,454 added in the month of September. The figure is much lower than BSNL’s August additions of 0.21 million users. BSNL had a market share of 10.36 percent at the end of September. Vodafone Idea had the third largest market share of 25.73 percent by the end of September. But it has been seeing a reduction in wireless subscriber base over the last few months. In September, Vodafone Idea lost over 4.65 million subscribers.
Vodafone Idea saw a monthly growth decline of 1.55 percent, whereas Airtel grew 1.17 percent month-on-month. Reliance Jio grew 0.03 percent whereas BSNL grew 0.07 percent in the month of September. TRAI says that the total wireless subscriber base increased from 1,147.92 million at the end of August to 1,148.58 million at the end of September, thereby registering a growth rate of 0.06 percent.
