The country’s regulator, the Telecoms Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), today gave the details for changes in the Indian market in the month of March.
Jio’s investment in 4G technology – which has been followed in recent weeks by substantial investment from the likes of Facebook, Google and a number of private equity and sovereign wealth funds – appears to have paid off.
At the same time the widely reported financial troubles of Vodafone Idea has been reflected in a huge loss of confidence by customers.
Trai’s figures show that in the month of March – the latest period for which numbers are available – Bharti Airtel lost 1,261,952 customers; Reliance Jio added 4,687,639 customers; and Vodafone Idea lost a whopping 6,353,200 customers.
Meanwhile state-owned operator BSNL added 95,428 while MTNL, also state-owned, lost 4,645. Neither of them yet offer a 4G service, but are seeking tenders from vendors.
Jio (see pie chart) now has more than a third of all mobile customers in India, according to Trai, which puts its market share at 33.47%.
Bharti Airtel stands at 28.31%, including those it acquired from Tata Teleservices, with Vodafone Idea now third in the three non-state operators at 27.57%. The two state-owned operators have just 10.64% between them.
Trai reports that total wireless subscribers (2G, 3G and 4G) decreased from 1,160 million at the end of February 2020 to 1,158 million at the end of March, a monthly decline rate of 0.24%.
The fall was more marked in urban areas, which showed a fall of 0.74%. In rural areas the market rose by 0.37%, says Trai.
Meanwhile India has only 20 million wireline customers, a number that is falling by 0.2% a month.
