Vodafone Idea (VIL) continues to lose customers by around 13.22 lakh in July and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) by around 14.01 lakh, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said in its monthly data release on Wednesday.
Reliance Jio (Jio) added the most wireless subscribers during the month at 39.07 lakh, while the second largest telecom operator Bharti Airtel (Airtel) added 15.17 lakh subscribers in July.
On the wireline subscribers basis also, Jio crossed one-crore mark in July to 1,01,48,995 subscribers compared to 99,51,866 customers in June-end, the TRAI data showed.
- Also read: Telcos, equipment makers welcome TRAI’s recommendations to improve telecom infra in N-E States
The total wireline subscribers increased from 30.31 million at the end of June to 30.61 million at the end of July, it said adding that net increase in the wireline subscriber base was 0.29 million with a monthly growth rate of 0.96 per cent.
The overall wireline tele-density in India increased to 2.20 per cent at the end of July from 2.18 per cent at the end of June.
Wireless subscribers
Total wireless subscribers increased to 1,146.25 million at the end of July, as compared to 1,143.58 million at the end of June, thereby registering a monthly growth rate of 0.23 per cent, TRAI said.
On active wireless subscribers (VLR Data), TRAI said out of the total 1,146.25 million wireless subscribers, 1046.41 million wireless subscribers were active on the date of peak VLR in the month of July. The proportion of active wireless subscribers was around 91.29 per cent of the total wireless subscriber base.
“As on July 31, 2023, the private access service providers held 91.26 per cent market share of the wireless subscribers whereas BSNL and MTNL, the two PSU (public sector undertakings) access service providers, had a market share of only 8.74 per cent,” the telecom regulator said.
Number portability
It said that a total of 11.77 million subscribers submitted their requests for mobile number portability (MNP) during the month and with this, the cumulative MNP requests increased from 852.99 million at the end of June to 864.76 million at the end of July, since implementation of MNP.
Overall, the number of telephone subscribers in India increased from 1,173.89 million at the end of June to 1,176.85 million at the end of July, thereby showing a monthly growth rate of 0.25 per cent. Urban telephone subscription increased from 653.70 million at the end of June to 656.47 million at the end of July and the rural subscription also increased from 520.19 million to 520.38 million during the same period, it added.