Reliance Jio Added 8.44 Million Subscribers Aug

Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd, India's second-largest wireless telecom operator by subscriber base, added 8.44 mln users in August, according to telecom subscription data released today by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.

As of August-end, the Reliance Industries Ltd subsidiary had 348.24 mln subscribers, while Bharti Airtel, which net lost 561,135 users during the month, had a subscriber base of 327.96 mln. The subscription data for Bharti Airtel includes subscribers of Tata Teleservices, which has been merged into the former.

Vodafone Idea Ltd net lost 4.96 mln subscribers in August, but continued to be the market leader by user base with a total of 375.06 mln subscribers.

In all, India's mobile phone subscriber base rose by 2.68 mln users in August to 1.17 bln users at the end of the month.

TRAI's subscriber data for August:

Company

Total subscriber base

(as on Aug 31)

Aug change

Market share

(in %)

Vodafone Idea375,063,514

(-)4,956,920

32.03%

Bharti Airtel*327,952,234

(-)561,135

28.01%

Reliance Jio Infocomm

348,240,1048,445,165

29.74%

Bharat Sanchar Nigam

116,234,101

(-)215,320

9.93%

Mahanagar Telephone Nigam

3,402,005

(-)6,701

0.29%

Reliance Communications

18,561

(-)63

0.002%

ALL INDIA

1,170,996,469

2,683,644

* From July, subscription data for Bharti Airtel includes that of Tata Teleservices, which has been merged into the former.

ACTIVE SUBSCRIBERS

The total number of active mobile subscribers in India fell by around 2.2 mln in August. Of the total wireless subscribers of 1.17 bln, 970.23 mln or 82.85% were active in August, according to the peak visitor location register, which shows the number of active subscribers within a mobile operator's network, including those roaming on its network.

As each base station in the network is served by one visitor location register, a subscriber cannot be present in more than one register at a time.

Bharti Airtel had the maximum active subscribers with 93.36% active, according to the visitor location register.

Active subscriber data for August:

Company

Total active subscribers

(Aug)

Vodafone Idea

308,414,728

Bharti Airtel

306,176,206

Reliance Jio Infocomm

289,422,350

Bharat Sanchar Nigam

65,125,967

Mahanagar Telephone Nigam

1,042,034

Reliance Communications

13,052

ALL INDIA

970,170,575

BROADBAND USERS

Bharti Airtel added around 2.76 mln wireless broadband users to its network, and held on to the second spot behind Reliance Jio, ahead of Vodafone Idea, in terms of the number of total broadband users.

The numbers for Bharti Airtel include those of Tata Teleservices, which has been merged into the former. Till June, user data for Tata Teleservices and Bharti Airtel was separate.

As of Aug 31, Vodafone Idea had 111.11 mln mobile broadband users, while Bharti Airtel had 126.7 mln.

All of Reliance Jio's broadband subscribers are categorised as wireless broadband users, as the operator provides only fourth-generation long-term evolution services, unlike its rivals, which also have legacy second generation operations. The company added 8.5 mln mobile broadband users and had 348.24 mln subscribers as on Aug 31.