As per the latest subscriber data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), Reliance Jio reported subscriber gains to the tune of 1.26 million in March 2022. In addition, Bharti Airtel also gained 2.25 million customers, bringing its tally to 360.03 million subscribers. However, Vodafone Idea Limited (Vi), in contrast, recorded a loss of 2.81 million customers during March 2022.
Meanwhile, the total wireless subscriber base surged to 1.142 billion subscribers, from 1.141 billion in February 2022, marking a month-on-month growth of 0.04 per cent. According to the data released by TRAI, wireless subscriptions in urban areas declined by 0.95 per cent month-on-month to 624.23 million at the end of March 2022, while rural subscription base increased by 0.29 per cent to 517.86 million during the same period.
With regard to market share, Jio continued to have the largest share of the pie at 35.37 per cent, Airtel with 31.55 per cent share, and Vi with 22.83 per cent, according to the data.
The TRAI data also showed that Airtel had the maximum number of active subscribers (VLR) on the date of peak VLR in March 2022, followed by Jio with 93.8 per cent active subscribers. Meanwhile, the overall wireless tele-density declined marginally from 83.10 per cent in February 2022 to 83.07 per cent in March 2022.
Additionally, in March 2022, 9.64 million subscribers submitted requests for mobile number portability (MNP), increasing the cumulative requests to 689.76 million at the end of March 2022, from 680.1 million at the end of February 2022. Wireline subscribers increased from 24.52 million at the end of February 2022, to 24.84 million at the end of March 2022, registering a net increase of 0.32 million (1.31 per cent) since February 2022.
