Like clockwork, TRAI has published its telecom subscription report for the month of April, and the total number of telephone subscribers decreased by 4.85 percent compared to March. The number was at 120.622 crores at the end of March, and by the end of April, the number declined to 114.771 crores. Even though the total number of subscribers decreased, Reliance Jio maintained its momentum by adding a whopping 96 lakh subscribers during the month of April. This is more than the 94 lakh subscribers it added in the month of March.
The TRAI report states that Idea Cellular added 55 lakh subscribers, and Bharti Airtel managed to add 45 lakh subscribers in the month of April. Interestingly, BSNL also managed to add more than 7 lakh subscribers, while Vodafone lost more than 5 lakh subscribers in the month of April. Even though Reliance Jio enjoys good momentum, Bharti Airtel still has the widest share of the wireless subscriber market at 27.44 percent. Vodafone has 19.74 percent, Idea enjoys a close third position with 19.27 percent market share, and Jio comes in fourth with 17.44 percent share.
Coming to broadband, TRAI detailed the number subscribers of Internet services faster than 512Kbps, including wired subscribers, mobile device subscribers, and fixed wireless subscribers, the number of subscribers increased from 41.260 crores at the end of March to 41.979 crores at the end of April, with a monthly growth rate of 1.74 percent. Reliance Jio enjoys the highest subscriber base in the broadband segment with 19.619 crore subscribers, followed by Bharti Airtel that enjoys 8.970 crore subscribers. Vodafone and Idea Cellular have 5.991 crore and 4.241 crore subscribers respectively. As of April, Reliance Jio alone enjoys 46.74 percent of broadband market share.
In the wired broadband segment, BSNL continues its lead, with Bharti Airtel coming in on the second position. All of Reliance Jio's subscribers fall in the wireless broadband segment, where it has a resounding lead.
Is the Reliance Jio effect spreading to postpaid connections in India? We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.
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