Indian Telecom Base Surpasses 120.5 Crore in June
The Indian Telecom sector witnessed significant growth in June, with the overall subscriber base surpassing the 120.5 crore mark.
This growth was primarily driven by new customer additions from the top players, including Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, despite the losses experience by other operators like Vodafone Idea (VIL), BSNL, and MTNL.
Reliance Jio emerged as the leader in wireless subscriber additions, bringing in 19.11 lakh new customers in June. Bharti Airtel also posted a strong performance, adding 12.52 lakh new wireless subscribers during the same period.
These additions played a crucial role in pushing the overall telecom subscriber base past the 120.5 crore milestone.
However, the positive growth was tempered by losses from other operators. Vodafone Idea (VIL) saw a significant decline, losing 8.6 lakh subscribers in June. BSNL, another major player in the market, lost 7.25 lakh subscribers, while MTNL saw a decline of 3,927 customers. Even the now-defunct Reliance Communications (RCom) saw a reduction of two subscribers.
In the wire line segment, Reliance Jio contributed to dominate, adding 4.34 lakh new subscribers, which reinforced its position as the market leader.
Bharti Airtel followed with 1.3 lakh new subscribers. Other players like VIL and VMPL also saw some positive traction, adding 21,042 and 13,996 subscribers, respectively. On the other hand, BSNL lost 60,644 wire line customers, the highest among the operators in June, followed by Quadrant, Tata Teleservices, MNTL, and APSFL, who also reported losses.
The machine-to-machine (M2M) segment, which is becoming increasing important in the digital age, saw Bharti Airtel leading with 2.82 crore connections. Vodafone Idea followed with 1.45 crore connections, while Reliance Jio and BSNL have 67.2 lakh and 29.3 lakh connections, respectively.
In the broadband segment, the total subscriber base in India increased to 94 crore in June, up from 93.51 crore at the end of the previous month. Reliance Jio led this segment with a customer base of 48.49 crore subscribers, followed by Bharti Airtel with 28.13 crore subscribers. Vodafone Idea and BSNL trailed with 12.78 crore and 2.5 crore subscribers, respectively.