Breaking its three-month losing streak, Reliance Jio gained 1.2 million subscribers in March 2022, while Bharti Airtel continued to gain the user base at a net addition of 2.2 million users 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, gained the user base in March as its drive came to an end.

Vodafone Idea was able to narrow the monthly user loss. It lost 2.8 million subscribers in the month, less than the subscriber loss of 3.6 million in February. Two public sector units, BSNL and MTNL, lost 12.7 lakh and 3,101 users, respectively.

The total wireless subscribers increased from 114.1 crore in February to 114.2 crore in March 2022, recording a growth of 0.05%.

Out of the total 114.2 crore wireless users, 102.1 crore or 89.42% are active users, the data showed. Airtel has a maximum of 98.74% active wireless users against its total wireless subscribers, while MTNL has a minimum of 20%.

Wireless users in urban areas decreased from 62.5 crore in Feb-end to 62.4 in march-end, while the wireless users in rural increased from 51.6 crore in Feb-end to 51.7 crore in March.

As of March 31, the private access service providers held 89.76% market share, and two PSUs BSNL and MTNL held 10.24% share. Among the private ones, Reliance Jio held a maximum 35.37% market share, followed by Airtel at 31.55% and Vodafone Idea at 22.83%, respectively. BSNL and MTNL held 9.96% and 0.28% market share, respectively.

The data showed wireline subscribers increasing from 2.45 crore by Feb-end to 2.48 million by March-end. BSNL and MTNL, both held 41.07% of the wireline market share as of February. Jio held 24.85%, followed by Airtel at 23.55% and Tata Tele at 6.44%.

In broadband, the total users increased by 0.63% from 78.33 crore in Feb-end to 78.83 crore in March-end. Jio leads the pack with 40.9 crore broadband subscribers in March, followed by Bharti Airtel at 21.5 crore, Vodafone Idea 12.2 crore, BSNL 2.7 crore, and Atria Convergence (20.8 lakh).

Overall, the number of telephone subscribers in India increased 0.08% from 116.66 crore at Feb-end to 116.69 at March-end, the data showed. The urban telephone users declined 0.1% to 64.7 crore in March. The rural subscription, however, increased 0.3% to 51.9 crore in March.

Meanwhile, Bharti Airtel stock was down 1.21% or 8.50 points at ₹696.9 compared to the previous session close of ₹705.4 on the National Stock Exchange. Vi share, however, was trading 2.81% up at ₹8.42 vs the previous session close of ₹8.19.

Trai data for March

Jio breaks 3-month losing streak; gains 1.2 mn users in March