Mukesh Ambani’s Jio commands 52% of India’s internet user base; market adds this many users at March-end

Reliance Jio-led India’s internet user base has increased 16.72 per cent from 636.73 million for the quarter ending March 2019 to 743.19 million at the end of March 2020, according to the latest data by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). The quarterly growth has been 3.40 per cent from 718.74 million users at the end of December 2019, showed the report on the sector’s quarterly performance by TRAI. Jio’s share in the user base for the quarter ending March 2020 stood at 52.26 per cent with over 38.83 crore subscribers followed 23.64 per cent share of Bharti Airtel with more than 17.56 crore subscribers. Vodafone Idea controlled 18.77 per cent share with nearly 14 crore subscribers.

Bharat Sanchar Nigam (with 4.16 per cent market share), followed by Atria Convergence Technologies (0.22 per cent), Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (0.14 per cent), Hathway Cable & Datacom (0.13 per cent), You Broadband India (0.11 per cent), GTPL Broadband (0.05 per cent) and Excitel Broadband (0.05 per cent) were the other top 10 ISPs in India. “Out of total 360 internet service providers, top 10 service providers together hold 99.51 per cent of total internet subscriber base at the QE Mar-20,” the report noted.

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In wireless internet segment, Reliance Jio had 53.76 per cent market share with 387.52 million subscribers while Airtel had 24.03 per cent and Vodafone Idea had 19.35 per cent share at the end of March 2020. However, in the wired segment, BSNL led the market with 50.28 per cent share with 11.27 million wired internet subscribers of the total 22.42 million while Airtel had 11 per cent share with 2.47 million subscribers. Reliance Jio had a meagre 3.90 per cent share here.

Reliance Jio Infocomm had reported nearly 3X growth in its Q1 FY21 profit to Rs 2,520 crore vis-a-vis Rs 891 crore in the year-ago period, the company had said in a statement in July. The company had 32.99 per cent share in the access segment in terms of subscribers with 388.61 million subscribers for the quarter ending March 2020 followed by Airtel’s 332.21 million subscribers. According to TRAI’s report, in term of net addition, Jio Infocomm was the biggest gainer with a net addition of 17.54 million telephone subscribers during the quarter ending March 2020.