Wireless telecom subscribers drop by 5.61 million, Jio & BSNL gains – TRAI

With pandemic hitting hard and lockdown at full force, Indian telcos are finding it hard to keep up their subscriber base. Yet, Reliance Jio and slightly BSNL is flourishing during these hard times.

During May this year, Indian telecom operators especially Airtel and Vodafone Idea saw massive drops in its subscriber base. According to the latest Telecom Subscription Data for May 2020 by TRAI, Airtel saw a decline in 4,742,840 or 4.7 million subscribers, while Vodafone Idea saw a similar decline of 4,726,357 subscribers.

However, during the same period, Reliance Jio continued to add more subscribers to its network. The telco was able to add 3,657,794 or around 3.65 million new subscribers in the month of May 2020 alone. BSNL was also able to attract new customer to its network (201,592 subscribers).

Stats on Indian Telecom (May 2020)

• The number of telephone subscribers in India decreased to 1,163.67 million.
• The total wireless subscribers, which also includes 2G, 3G and 4G LTE subscribers in the country also decreased to 1,143.91 million.
• Private telecom operators hold on Indian telecom market share dropped to 89.21 per cent. Whereas both PSU telecom operators BSNL and MTNL together hold 10.79 per cent of the pie.
• During the period, Reliance Jio continued to attract new subscribers to its network – 3.65 million. BSNL also added a small 201,592 subscribers to its network.
• On the losing side, we have Vodafone Idea, Airtel and MTNL.
• Reliance Jio tops the Indian telecom sector market share with 34.33 per cent hold. Whereas, Airtel controls 2.78 per cent market share and Vodafone Idea around 27.09 per cent market share.

• Wireline subscriber base decreased to 19.77 million in May 2020. BSNL along with MTNL topped the wireline segment with 57.90 per cent market share.
• Reliance Jio with its Jio Fiber is slowly expanding its reach and now commands 6.23 per cent of the wireline segment.
• There were 2.98 million Mobile number portability (MNP) requests in May 2020.

Stats on Indian Broadband (May 2020)

• The number of broadband subscribers, which include both mobile and wired subscribers increased to 683.77 million.
• Reliance Jio tops the chart in the Indian data market with 392.75 million subscribers. Airtel takes the second spot with 143.55 million data subscribers.

• In wired broadband connections, BSNL continues to hold the top spot with 7.93 million subscribers. On the second spot, we have Airtel Broadband with 2.41 million subscribers.
• In the Wireless broadband service (3G, 4G) providers, rank list (based on the number of subscribers) Reliance Jio tops the chart, followed by Airtel and Vodafone India.