Jio widens its subscriber base, Vodafone Idea falls further: Trai

NEW DELHI: Mukesh Ambani-led telecom operator Reliance Jio continues to widen its subscriber base as rival Vodafone Idea’s subscriber number witnesses a free fall in the month of November 2019.

Among the three access service providers, Reliance Jio added the highest number of 5.6 million wireless subscribers, while Bharti Airtel saw a nominal net addition of 1.6 million, according to subscriber data for November 2019 released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Thursday.

However, after seeing a minor improvement in subscriber number in October, Vodafone Idea, lost 36.4 million wireless subscribers, meaning a sharp sequential dip of 9.7% in net additions in November, and a reduced market share of 29.12%, data showed.

Corresponding market shares of Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel were 32.04% and 28.35% respectively at the end of the month.

Bharti Airtel’s health also improved in the wireline category with net additions of7,793 subscribers as opposed to the decline of 8,830 seen in the previous month.

Reliance Jio continued to be the leader in the broadband category this month too, accounting for 56.07% share of the pie.

Overall, the industry saw a decline in subscriber numbers across all categories at a rate of -2.40% over the previous month. Total mobile subscribers at the end of November 2019 were 1.17 billion.

The industry saw a total of 4.88 million mobile number portability requests in the month of November, TRAI said.