As per the latest data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel gained 3.4 million and 1.3 million mobile users respectively in September 2023, largely at the expense of Vodafone Idea Limited (Vi), which continued to suffer big subscriber losses. Vi lost 0.7 million mobile users in September 2023, further shrinking its user base to 228.28 million. By contrast, Jio and Airtel user bases expanded to 449.21 million and 377.78 million respectively.
Separately, Jio further consolidated its market leadership in the wireline space in September 2023. TRAI data showed that Jio added 0.12 million wireline users, boosting its landline user base to 10.45 million. Erstwhile market leader Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) lost another 0.081 million wireline users. Meanwhile, Airtel added 0.14 million users, boosting its wireline user base to around 7.9 million.
Further, the month of September 2023 witnessed Jio and Airtel widening their customer market shares to 39.06 per cent (from 38.81 per cent in August 2023) and 32.85 per cent (from 32.78 per cent in August 2023), respectively, while Vi’s narrowed further to 19.78 per cent as against 19.88 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 0.35 million in these geographies while Airtel gained 0.63 million and Jio added around 1.56 million. The data released by the regulator also showed that overall wireless tele-density increased marginally to 82.54 per cent in September 2023 from 82.48 per cent in August 2023.
During September 2023, 12.65 million users submitted requests for mobile number portability (MNP), increasing the cumulative requests to 890.08 million by end-September 2023 from 877.43 million by end-August 2023. The wireline user base increased from 30.78 million at the end of August 2023 to 30.98 million at the end of September 2023, registering a net increase of 0.20 million.
