Telecom subscriber base crosses 120 billion in January, Jio added 93 lakh

According to a new report by TRAI, the telecom subscriber base has crossed 120 billion in January after Reliance Jio, Airtel and BSNL added new customers.

The number of telephone subscribers in India increased from 1,197.87 million at the end of December 2018 to 1,203.77 million at the end of January 2019, thereby showing a monthly growth rate of 0.49 percent.

The mobile customer base grew to 118 crores in January from 117 crores in December. The wireline connection in the country slid to 2.17 crore in January from 2.18 crore in December.

The report pointed out that Mukesh Ambani owned Reliance Jio dominated the chart by adding over 93 lakh new mobile users in January. While BSNL has added 9.82 lakh subscribers and Bharti Airtel added more than 1 lakh new customers.

However, Vodafone Idea and Tata Teleservices jointly lost 44 lakh mobile customers during the same month.

The total wireline subscribers further declined from 21.87 million to 21.79 million during the same month. The net decline in the wireline subscriber base was 0.07 million with a monthly decline rate of 0.34 percent.

The share of urban and rural subscribers in total wireline subscribers was 85.86 percent and 14.14 percent respectively at the end of January-19.

Top five service providers constituted 98.63 percent market share of the total broadband subscribers at the end of January-19. These service providers were Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (289.44 million), Bharti Airtel (110.25 million), Vodafone Idea (109.86 million), BSNL (20.81 million) and Tata Tele. Group (2.26 million).