As per the latest data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel gained 2.14 million and 1.75 million mobile users respectively in March 2024, largely at the expense of Vodafone Idea Limited (Vi), which continued to suffer big subscriber losses. Vi lost a whopping 0.68 million mobile users during the period, further shrinking its user base to 219.81 million.
Separately, Jio further consolidated its market leadership in the wireline space in March 2024. TRAI data showed that Jio added 0.39 million wireline users, boosting its landline user base to 12.03million. Meanwhile, market leader Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) gained 0.006 million wireline users. In addition, Airtel added 0.2 million users, boosting its wireline user base to around 8.77 million.
Further, the month of March 2024 witnessed Jio widening its customer market share to 40.30 per cent (from 40.15 per cent in February 2024), while Airtel’s market share rose to 33.10 (from 32.97 per cent in February 2024). In addition, Vi’s narrowed further to 18.86 per cent as against 18.93 per cent the previous month.
Besides, TRAI data showed that Vi lost customers in rural India, while Airtel and Jio made modest gains. Vi lost 0.28 million in these geographies while Airtel and Jio gained 2.21 million and 1 million respectively. The data released by the regulator also showed that overall wireless tele-density remained the same, 83.27 per cent in March 2024 and February 2024.
During March 2024, 11.44 million users submitted requests for mobile number portability (MNP), increasing the cumulative requests from 951.09 million by end-February 2024 to 962.53 million by end-March 2024. The wireline user base increased from 33.10 million at the end of February 2024 to 33.79 million at the end of March 2024, registering a net increase of 0.69 million.
