Vodafone Idea, Airtel continue losing spree; Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio marches ahead in June

Mukesh Ambani’s four-year-old telecom giant has been eating up the users of both Vodafone-Idea and Bharti Airtel, two telecom firms, which once ruled the industry. Vodafone Idea Ltd (VIL) and Bharti Airtel lost about 48.2 lakh and 11.3 lakh users, respectively, in June, while rival Reliance Jio got a fresh boost of nearly 45 lakh customers, strengthening its hold in the mobile telephony market, according to TRAI’s subscriber tally for June. 

With the exception of Reliance Industries Ltd’s telecom arm Reliance Jio, which also happens to be India’s youngest telecom operator, all other operators reported a fall in their mobile subscribers in June. Reliance Jio is the largest telecom operator in India and has been on a continuous upward trend. The company has also been of late an investor magnate, securing thousands of crore in investment from global companies. Jio gained 44.9 lakh subscribers in June, propping up its wireless customer base to 39.7 crore.

On the other hand, Bharti Airtel lost almost 11.3 lakh users in the mobile category, and its subscriber base stood at 31.6 crore subscribers in June. The subscriber base of Bharti Airtel also includes Tata Teleservices. On the other hand, the subscriber base of Vodafone-Idea slipped by 48.2 lakh during the month to 30.5 crore.

Meanwhile, India’s total wireless subscriber base fell by 0.28% to 114 crore at the end of June 2020, as there was a decline in both urban and rural areas. Monthly decline rates of urban and rural mobile subscription were 0.18% and 0.40%, respectively. The share of urban and rural mobile subscribers in total wireless user base was pegged at 54.3% and 45.7%, respectively at the end of June, meaning mobile penetration is higher in urban India when compared to rural India.

For broadband services, top five service providers constituted 98.93% market share at the end of June. “These service providers were Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (398.31 million), Bharti Airtel (151.30 million), Vodafone Idea (116.45 million), BSNL (23 million)…,” TRAI said.