As per the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Reliance Jio recorded a sharp fall in mobile phone user additions in December 2019, primarily due to tariff hikes and interconnect usage charges (IUC) for voice calls to rival networks.
As per TRAI, Jio reported a net addition of 82,308 subscribers as compared to Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, which lost 11,050 and 3.6 million subscribers respectively. Consequently, Vodafone Idea and Airtel’s customer bases fell to 332.6 million and 327.29 million respectively. In contrast, the subscriber base of Jio remained intact at 370 million.
The number of telephone subscribers in India declined from 1,175.88 million at the end of November 2019 to 1,172.44 million at the end of December 2019, thereby showing a monthly decline rate of 0.29 per cent.
Urban telephone subscription declined from 665.99 million to 662.45 million during the period. Whereas, the rural subscription increased from 509.89 million to 509.99 million.
Meanwhile, wireless subscription in urban areas declined by 3.36 million at the end of December 2019. However, wireless subscription in rural areas increased by a small number.
Jammu & Kashmir service area showed maximum growth of 4.99 per cent in their wireless subscriber during the month as the region saw telecom services coming back to normal after a few months of shutdown.
