NE BUSINESS BUREAU
NEW DELHI, JUNE 29
Vodafone Idea lost 34.67 lakh mobile subscribers in February, even as Reliance Jio continued to be on a roll adding 62.57 lakh users, according to the latest data released by sector regulator Trai.
Jio continued to lead the total wireless subscriber tally by a wide margin with a base of 38.28 crore mobile users during the month. Bharti Airtel added 9.2 lakh users during February, and its total mobile subscriber base stood at 32.90 crores.
Even state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) garnered 4.39 lakh subscribers during February.
In terms of subscriber market share for wireless services, Reliance Jio held 32.9 percent, with Bharti Airtel at 28.35 percent and Vodafone Idea at 28 percent share as on February 29, 2020.
Jio added maximum subscribers (62.57 lakh) in February, while Bharti Airtel gained 9.2 lakh users. Vodafone Idea, on the other hand, lost a staggering 34.6 lakh users during the same period.
The number of telephone subscribers in India (landline and mobile combined) rose to 118 crores at the end of February, a growth of 0.32 percent over the previous month, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) said.
Urban telephone subscription dipped marginally to 66.1 crores at the end of February, but the rural subscription increased to 51.9 crores.
Overall wireless subscribers (2G, 3G, and 4G) increased to 116 crores at the end of February, a monthly increase of 0.36 percent, it said.
Trai said that as per reports received from 341 operators in February, the number of broadband subscribers increased to 68.1 crores at the end of February, registering a growth rate of 1.15 percent over the previous month.
“Top-five service providers constituted 98.99 percent market share of the total broadband subscribers at the end of February. These service providers were Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (383.67 million), Bharti Airtel (146.10 million), Vodafone Idea (118.25 million), BSNL (24.67 million),” it said.
