Airtel Leads Mobile Subscriber Additions With 26.9 Lakh Users
In July, Bharti Airtel recorded the most mobile subscribers, increasing by 2.69 million, just surpassing Reliance Jio, which added 2.45 million users. Vodafone Idea saw an addition of 240,114 subscribers, while state-run BSNL attracted 168,874 users, as per the recent data shared by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).
Airtel and Jio combined contributed to almost 5.14 million of the overall 5.54 million net increases in mobile subscribers that month.
The total wireless mobile subscriber count in the country rose from 1,282.38 million at the close of June to 1,287.92 million by the end of July.
Airtel gained 2.69 million mobile users in the month, raising its subscriber total to 489.49 million, whereas Jio gained 2.45 million users, reaching 506.03 million. Vodafone Idea’s user count grew to 199.06 million with the addition of 240,114 users, while BSNL’s count climbed by 168,874 to reach 93.18 million. MTNL experienced a decline of 5,744 subscribers over the month.
The July figures indicate ongoing progress for Vodafone Idea, as its subscriber count increased by 0.12 percent for the month, in contrast to Airtel's growth of 0.55 percent, Jio's 0.49 percent, and BSNL's 0.18 percent.
Jio continued to lead FWA additions, gaining 155,869 subscribers to its 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) base in July, bringing its total to 9.27 million.
Airtel gained 116,951 5G FWA subscribers, increasing its total to 3.94 million.
The two operators collectively gained 272,820 5G FWA users in that month. Jio gained 204,320 subscribers on its UBR-based FWA service, bringing the total to 5.14 million by the end of July
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In the machine-to-machine (M2M) sector, Airtel maintained its leadership, with its connections increasing by approximately 1.68 million over the month to reach 84.45 million. Jio increased its M2M connections by approximately 800,000 to achieve 26.56 million, while Vodafone Idea added roughly 300,000 to reach 21.92 million, and BSNL included about 200,000 to total 4.77 million. The total M2M cellular mobile connections rose by 2.97 million to reach 137.70 million.
The active wireless subscriber count, based on peak visitor location register (VLR) data, rose by 2.95 million in July to 1.204 billion, up from 1.201 billion in June. At the end of July, active users represented 93.48 percent of the overall mobile subscriber base, down from 93.66% the previous month.
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According to the operator-specific subscriber base and VLR ratios provided by TRAI, Airtel gained approximately 1.93 million active users in the month, whereas Jio gained about 1.16 million and Vodafone Idea gained roughly 182,000. BSNL’s active subscriber count decreased by approximately 428,000 even though its total subscriber base grew, as its VLR ratio dropped to 55.02 percent in July from 55.58 percent in June.
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The total telecom subscriber base, comprising both wireless and wireline connections, rose by 6.20 million to reach 1.354 billion at the close of July. Wireless subscriptions, which encompass mobile and FWA, increased by 6.02 million in the month.