Jio adds 39 lakh wireless subscribers in July: TRAI

Reliance Jio, the telecom arm of Reliance Industries, with a market share of 38.60%, added more than 39.07 lakh wireless subscribers in July, according to the latest data by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). This is a whopping 71.9% month-on-month increase in terms of subscriber base as against 22.72 lakh added in June this year.

This was followed by Bharti Airtel, which added 15.17 lakh wireless subscribers during the month under review, up 11.4% month-on-month, as against 14.09 lakh subscribers in June. Bharti Airtel cornered a market share of 32.68% in July.

Beleaguered Vodafone Idea Limited, however, witnessed a drop of nearly 13.21 lakh subscribers during the month under review. In contrast to this, the company lost 12.85 lakh subscribers in June. With this, the market share of Vodafone Idea reduced from 20.08% in June to 19.92% in July. During the month under review, the private telecom services providers collectively held 91.26%, in terms of wireless subscriber base, whereas BSNL and MTNL had a market share of only 8.74%.

In terms of broadband services, Reliance Jio cornered a market share of 52.09% and added 94 lakh and 4429 lakh subscribers in wired broadband services and wireless broadband services, respectively. This was followed by Bharti Airtel, which cornered a market share of 28.92% and added 67.1 lakh and 2444.1 lakh, wired and wireless broadband providers respectively. Vodafone Idea, however, witnessed a decline in broadband services market share to 14.31% during the month under review, from 14.50% in June. The company added 1242.7 lakh wireless broadband providers during the month under review.

Following the development, shares of Vodafone Idea plunged as much as 4.1% to hit an intraday low of ₹11.51 apiece on the BSE. During the session, the company’s market capitalisation stood at ₹56,857 crore with more than 4.5 crore shares exchanging hands on the BSE as against the two-week average of 767.76 lakh shares.

The share price of Bharti Airtel was trading higher, with the shares surging as much as 0.7%, to hit an intraday high of ₹926.10 apiece on the BSE. Shares of Reliance Industries, however, after surging as much 0.6% to hit an intraday high of ₹2,332.90 apiece on the BSE, plunged by 1.53%.