Jio gains 1.6 mn subscribers in April, Airtel user base up by 8.1 lakh

Continuing its winning streak, Reliance Jio gained the highest 1.6 million subscribers in April 2022, while rival Bharti Airtel increased the net user base by 8.16 lakh in the month, the data released by Trai (telecom regulatory authority of India) shows. Jio, which had initiated a major clean-up of low-cost, dormant, and inactive users last year, had gained 1.2 million subscribers in March 2022.

As per the latest data, Reliance Jio had a wireless subscriber base of 40.5 crore as of April 30, 2022, followed by Airtel at 36.1 crore and Vodafone Idea at 25.9 crore. State-owned BSNL and MTNL had total wireless subscribers at 11.3 crore and 32,45,504, respectively, in April.

Vodafone Idea was able to narrow down the monthly user loss for April 2022. It lost 1.5 million subscribers as compared to 2.8 million lost in March 2022 and 3.6 million in February 2022. Two public sector units, BSNL and MTNL, lost 3.6 lakh and 3,147 subscribers, respectively, as compared to the user loss of 12.7 lakh and 3,101 users, respectively, in March 2022.

The total wireless subscribers increased from 114.2 crore in March 2022 to 114.26 crore in April 2022, recording a growth of 0.05%.

Out of the total 114.26 crore wireless users in April, 101.3 crore or 89.72% are active users, the Trai data shows. Airtel has a maximum of 97.65% active wireless users against its total wireless subscribers, while MTNL has a minimum of 19.75%.

In April, wireless users in urban areas decreased from 62.4 crore in March-end to 62.3 crore in April, while those in rural areas increased from 51.7 crore in March to 51.8 crore.

As of April 30, the private access service providers held 89.79% market share, and two PSUs BSNL and MTNL held 10.21% share. Among the private ones, Reliance Jio held a maximum 35.50% market share, followed by Airtel at 31.61% and Vodafone Idea at 22.68%, respectively. BSNL and MTNL held 9.92% and 0.28% market share, respectively.

The data shows the wireline subscribers increasing from 24.8 million by March-end to 25.16 million by April. BSNL and MTNL, both held 41.16% of the wireline market share as of April 30. Jio held 25.85%, followed by Airtel at 23.54% and Tata Tele at 6.33%.

In broadband, the total users increased by 0.63% from 778.3 million in March-end to 778.7 million in April-end. Jio leads the pack with 411.3 million broadband subscribers in April, followed by Bharti Airtel at 215.2 million, Vodafone Idea 122 million, BSNL 26.1 million, and Atria Convergence at 20.8 lakh.

Overall, the number of telephone subscribers in India increased by 0.08% to 116.7 crore in April 2022, the Trai data shows. The urban telephone users declined 0.2% to 64.6 crore in April. The rural subscription, however, increased 0.19% to 52 crore in April.

Meanwhile, Bharti Airtel stock is trading 0.83% or 5.45 points down at ₹648.8 compared to the previous session close of ₹654.2 on the National Stock Exchange. Vi share is also trading 3.53% down at ₹8.2 vs the previous session close of ₹8.5.