NE BUSINESS BUREAU
AHMEDABAD, JULY 29
Lockdown, which started in the last week of March 2020, changed the lifestyle across the globe as everything overnight went digital, including offices and schools. Jio, known for high-speed connectivity, witnessed heavy demand for new connections, including JioFi during the lockdown.
As per mobile subscription data released by the telecom regulator, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), in Gujarat, Jio added over 68,000 users by the end of April 2020 in Gujarat circle. In addition, Jio’s base in the state increased to 2.38 crore in the month.
However, other active four operators witnessed an overall loss of over 11 lakh subscribers during the same period in the state. Gujarat, where the population is believed to be over 7 crores, had 6.79 crore, mobile users, in March 2020 which fell in lockdown period to 6.68 crore by end of April 2020.
Except for Jio, all operators saw a huge fall during the lockdown. Airtel witnessed the largest fall in the month with a loss of 6.81 lakh subscribers. After the fall, the operator has 1.03 crore users in Gujarat.
Vodafone Idea Ltd (VIL), which has been a leader in subscription numbers in Gujarat for the past several years, witnessed a huge fall of 4.96 lakh numbers, which reduced to 2.65 crore users in the state. State-owned telecom operator, BSNL which has been seeing a rise in subscription numbers for the past couple of years, has too witnessed fall this time. The subscribers of BSNL in Gujarat fell marginally by over 7,000 to a total of 61 lakh users in the state.
Nationally too, Airtel and Vodafone Idea lost 52.69 lakh and 45.16 lakh subscribers, respectively, in April, while Jio added 15.75 lakh users during the same period, says Trai subscription report. The subscriber base of Jio swelled to 38.90 crores in April 2020. Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea Ltd (VIL) continued to see subscriber churn in the period when the nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of coronavirus pandemic was in force.
