Vodafone Idea lost 3.5 mn subscribers in Feb; Jio added 6.3 mn users: Trai

Vodafone Idea lost 3.47 million mobile subscribers in February, even as Reliance Jio continued to be on a roll adding 6.26 million users, according to latest data released by sector regulator Trai.

Jio continued to lead the total wireless subscriber tally by a wide margin with a base of 382.8 million mobile users during the month. Bharti Airtel added 920,000 users during February, and its total mobile subscriber base stood at 3290 million.

Even state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) garnered 439,000 subscribers during February.

In terms of subscriber market share for wireless services, Reliance Jio held 32.9 per cent, with Bharti Airtel at 28.35 per cent and Vodafone Idea at 28 per cent share as on February 29, 2020.

Jio added maximum subscribers (6.26 million) in February, while Bharti Airtel gained 920,000 users. Vodafone Idea, on the other hand, lost a staggering 3.5 million users during the same period.

The number of telephone subscribers in India (landline and mobile combined) rose to 1.18 billion at the end of February, a growth of 0.32 per cent over the previous month, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) said.

Urban telephone subscription dipped marginally to 6610 million at the end of February, but the rural subscription increased to 5190 million.

Overall wireless subscribers (2G, 3G and 4G) increased to 1.16 billion at the end of February, a monthly increase of 0.36 per cent, it said.

Trai said that as per reports received from 341 operators in February, the number of broadband subscribers increased to 68.1 crore at the end of February, registering a growth rate of 1.15 per cent over the previous month.

"Top-five service providers constituted 98.99 per cent 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.