Airtel adds 35.9 million customers in May: TRAI data

According to a new data by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), Bharti Airtel has managed to garner 35.9 million customers in May, while Mukesh Ambani owned Reliance Jio added 9.35 million, followed by State-run telecom operator BSNL.

Meanwhile, India's second largest telecom service provider Vodafone added 4,24,820 users.

The data said that the number of telephone subscribers in India increased from 1,147.71 million at the end of April-18 to 1,153.51 million at the end of May-18, thereby showing a monthly growth rate of 0.51 percent.

Total wireless subscribers (GSM, CDMA & LTE) increased from 1,125.07 million at the end of Apr-18 to 1,131.01 million at the end of May-18, thereby registering a monthly growth rate of 0.53 percent.

The data also pointed out that as on 31st May 2018, the private access service providers held 89.71 percent market share of the wireless subscribers whereas BSNL and MTNL, the two PSU access service providers, had a market share of only 10.29 percent.

During the month of May-18, a total of 4.51 million requests were received for MNP. With this, the cumulative MNP requests increased from 377.55 million at the end of Apr-18 to 382.06 million at the end of May-18, since the implementation of MNP.

Furthermore, in MNP Zone-I (Northern and Western India), the highest number of requests till date have been received in Rajasthan (about 31.54 million) followed by Maharashtra (about 26.28 million) service area.

In MNP Zone-II (Southern and Eastern India), the highest number of requests till date have been received in Karnataka (about 36.75 million) followed by Tamilnadu (about 32.78 million).