New Delhi: In a surprising turn for the Indian telecom sector, BSNL has overtaken Bharti Airtel in net mobile customer additions for August, according to data released by TRAI on Monday. Meanwhile, Reliance Jio continued to dominate the charts, adding the highest number of new mobile users.
Mobile Subscriber Growth Propels Overall Telephony Gains
The total number of telephone subscribers in India rose to 122.45 crore at the end of August, up from 122 crore in July. The increase was driven primarily by mobile additions, which saw a net growth of 35.19 lakh new users.
- Reliance Jio led among all operators with over 19 lakh new mobile subscribers in August.
- BSNL surprisingly edged past Airtel by adding 13.85 lakh new customers.
- Bharti Airtel added 4.96 lakh new mobile users.
- Vodafone Idea witnessed a net loss of 3.08 lakh mobile subscribers — the sharpest decline among operators.
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Broadband and Wireline Segments: Jio Leads, Airtel Follows
In the broadband domain (including mobile and fixed-line), Reliance Jio remained at the top, boasting over 50 crore connections. Bharti Airtel trailed with 30.9 crore, followed by Vodafone Idea (12.7 crore), BSNL (3.43 crore), and Atria Convergence (23.5 lakh).
In the wireline segment, Tata Teleservices led net additions at 1.17 lakh customers, with Airtel adding 1.08 lakh and Vodafone Idea adding slightly over 24,000 lines. Conversely, Jio recorded a sharp decline of 15.5 lakh in wireline numbers, partly due to reclassification of its Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) users as wireless rather than fixed-line connections. State-owned operators fared poorly — MTNL lost 1.87 lakh and BSNL shed 5,647 wireline users.
Operator Trends in M2M Connectivity
In the Machine-to-Machine (M2M) cellular connections arena, Bharti Airtel held the lead with 5.26 crore connections, capturing a 58.66% market share. It was followed by Vodafone Idea (19.4%), Reliance Jio (17.94%), and BSNL (4.01%).
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