NE BUSINESS BUREAU
AHMEDABAD, FEB 22
In less than 4.5 years, Jio climbs to the top position in subscribers in Gujarat. As per the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) subscription numbers ended in December 2020, Jio added 3.36 lakh mobile numbers in Gujarat and became the largest telecom operator of the circle with a total base of 2.54 crore subscribers.
Jio started its services in September 2016 and by end of December 2020, it climbed to the topmost position in the circle. The Trai report reveals that the Vodafone Idea, which was the leader for about 25 years, lost about 1.62 lakh subscribers in December 2020. This led the operator to climb down to the second position in Gujarat with a total of 2.50 crore users in the circle.
Long back, Jio became the largest revenue-generating operator in the state with over 45% of revenue market share. Now this time, Jio has become the largest operator with the highest customer market share of 37.51%.
In December 2020, apart from Jio, it was only Airtel that posted positive growth of 2.55 lakh subscribers in the state. With a total 1.14 crore user base, Airtel has 16.88% of the customer market share. The state-owned telecom company, BSNL lost about 2.20 lakh subscribers in the period. By end of December 2020, BSNL had an 8.69% customer market share with a total of 58.91 lakh subscribers in the circle.
Thanks to Jio and Airtel, the total net additions of mobile numbers in Gujarat increased by 2.09 lakh, totaling 6.77 crore mobile subscribers in Gujarat in December 2020. Of the total subscribers in Gujarat, Jio and Vodafone Idea together have a share of 74.42%.
Nationally too, Airtel and Jio were the only gainers of new customers in December. Airtel led the mobile segment with an addition of over 40 lakh new customers and Jio added 4.78 lakh new customers. However, the total subscriber base in the country fell marginally to 115 crores in December 2020 with Vodafone Idea, BSNL, and MTNL losing the bulk of their customers.
