Airtel alone gains customers in Sept among old telcos, reveals COAI data

After a loss of users in August; attrition for Vodafone and Idea also slower

With the telecom industry stabilising after the disruption caused by Reliance Jio, customer attrition from incumbent operators has been slowing. Bharti Airtel, the largest, rebounded with subscriber additions in September, indicating the worst might be over. 

Data from the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) showed Airtel added a little over a million customers in September, taking its user base to 282 mn, a market share of 29.8 per cent. It got more subscribers in most of the circles, leading with Mumbai where it added 360,000, a growth rate of 5.5 per cent. The company’s user base grew 0.36 per cent