Jio, Airtel add users while Voda Idea continues to lose

Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel continue to add users while Vodafone Idea continues to lose. In July, Jio added the maximum 3.55 million net subscribers followed by Airtel, which added 3.26 million users. State-run BSNL also added 388,326 subscribers but Vodafone Idea lost 3.72 million subscribers in July.

As per data shared by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), at the end of July 2020, the mobile subscriber base of Reliance Jio stood at 400.80 million followed by Airtel at 319.93 million and Vodafone Idea at 301.37 million. BSNL has 118.60 million subscribers.

In terms of wireless broadband users, which include 3G and 4G, the subscriber base of Airtel rose by 4.41 million to 153.25 million from 148.84 million in June. Vodafone Idea, though lost 1.18 million broadband users in July and its base declined to 115.26 million from 116.44 million in June.

Incumbent operators are trying to add and upgrade more users to 4G. Currently, there are over 350 million 2G users, primarily on the networks of Airtel and Vodafone Idea. Jio has already expressed its intentions to make 2G redundant by upgrading all users to 4G.

The company plans to come out with low-cost Android smartphones in the coming months to grab the 2G users. Similarly, Airtel is upgrading many of its 2G users to 4G and getting new users but Vodafone Idea is lagging on both the fronts. The growth of Vodafone Idea’s new additions and upgradation is much lower than Airtel.

The wired broadband segment also rose by 1.56% to reach 20.13 million in July from 19.82 million in June. Reliance Jio is the biggest gainer followed by Airtel. BSNL though continues to lose wired broadband users.