Reliance Jio, one of India’s largest telecom operator, gained 16.8 lakh mobile subscribers in April, cementing its lead in the market, according to data provided by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), the PTI said.
The other major telco, Bharti Airtel, added 8.1 lakh users during that month.
The third major telco in India, Vodafone Idea, however, lost about 15.7 lakh mobile subscribers during April 2022, the monthly subscriber data released by the regulator showed.
According to the report, Reliance Jio added 16.8 lakh users, pushing-up its mobile user count to 40.5 crore. Bharti Airtel too was a net gainer in April, as the Sunil Mittal-led company added 8.1 lakh mobile subscribers. The net additions raised Airtel’s mobile subscriber tally to 36.11 crore.
While Vodafone Idea’s base, which lost 15.68 lakh subscribers during the month, slid to 25.9 crore in April.
India’s total wireless subscribers count increased marginally to 114.3 crore at the end of April 2022, the Trai data said.
Wireless subscription in urban areas decreased to 62.4 crore at the end of April, while subscription in rural markets inched up to 51.8 crore. The Trai said, “Monthly growth rates of urban and rural wireless subscription were -0.07 per cent and 0.20 per cent respectively.”
Total broadband subscribers on a month-on-month basis increased slightly to 78.87 crore at April-end. Top five service providers constituted 98.4 per cent market share. These service providers included Reliance Jio (41.1 crore), Bharti Airtel (21.5 crore), Vodafone Idea (12.2 crore).
Meanwhile, the central government has approved Department of Telecom’s (DoT’s) proposal for the auction of 72 GHz of spectrum for a 20-year-period by July end to reduce the cost of doing business for Telecom Service Providers. The government has also decided to “enable the development and setting up of private captive networks to spur a new wave of innovations in industry 4.0 applications”.