Reliance Jio and state-run BSNL were the only two operators that gained new subscribers in October 2018. Both jointly added over 1.08 crore new mobile phone customers.
The latest statistics of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) which has released recently has provided the number of broadband,mobile phone customers in October 2018.
As per the data, the number of telephone subscribers in the country increased to 119.2 crore in October from 119.14 crore in September.
This marginal growth was led by Reliance Jio and state-run BSNL, the only two operators that gained new subscribers in October 2018.
Reliance Jio and BSNL jointly added over 1.08 crore new mobile phone customers. Reliance Jio alone added over 1 crore and BSNL added 3.66 lakh customers.
Meanwhile,Vodafone Idea, Bharti Airtlel, Tata Teleservices, MTNL and Reliance Communications lost more than 1.01 crore customers.As per the statistics, Vodafone Idea lost 73.61 lakh mobile subscribers, Airtel 18.64 lakh, Tata Teleservices 9.25 lakh, MTNL 8,068 and RCom 3,831 customers.
Mobile phone segment
Mobile phone segment registered a monthly growth rate of 0.06 percent, recording 117 crore customers in October 2018 against 116.92 crore in September.
The wireless subscription in urban areas increased from 647.70 million (64.77 crore) at the end of September 2018 to 648.24 million (64.82 crore) at the end of October 2018.
In rural areas, mobile phone subscriptions increased 0.03 percent from 521.59 million (52.15 crore) to 521.77 million (52.17 crore) during the month.
Broadband subscribers
The number of broadband subscribers which included wired and wireless have increased 48.17 crore in September 2018 to 49.61 crore in October 2018 in the country, registering a monthly growth rate of 2.99 percent.
Top five broadband service providers were Reliance Jio Infocomm with 26.27 crore customers, Airtel (10.13 crore), Vodafone Idea (10.13 crore), BSNL (2.03 crore) and Tata Tele Group (25 lakh). They constituted 98.42 percent market share of the total broadband subscribers in October.
Active mobile customers
Airtel and Vodafone Idea lost mobile customers as they have removed in-active subscribers on their 2G and 3G networks across the country.
Airtel has 99.57 percent active mobile customers on its 2G, 3G and 4G networks in India. Its total subscriber base stood at 34.16 crore at the end of October.
As per the report,Vodafone’s total base came down to 42.76 crore subscribers with 94.47 percent active mobile phone customers.
