Vodafone Idea lost a whopping 63.53 lakh subscribers during the month of March taking its subscriber base to 31.91 crore, according to data from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). In the same month, Bharti Airtel lost 12.61 lakh subscribers. Its subscriber base at the end of March stood at over 32.78 crore.
Reliance Jio, on the other hand, added over 46.87 lakh customers during the month, taking its subscriber base to over 38.75 crore, TRAI’s data showed.
State-run BSNL too added customers in March. BSNL saw over 95,000 new customers and its total tally now stands at 11.97 crore subscribers.
In terms of market share, Reliance Jio came in as the market leader with a 33.47% market share, followed by Bharti Airtel at 28.31%. Vodafone Idea is now the third largest telecom operator in the country with a market share of 27.57%, while BSNL held 10.35%.
At the end of February, Reliance Jio had 32.99% market share, followed by Bharti Airtel at 28.35%, Vodafone Idea with 28.05% and BSNL holding 10.32% share.
Overall, private access service providers held 89.36% market share of the wireless subscribers in March whereas BSNL and MTNL, the two PSU access service providers, had a market share of only 10.64%.
"Total wireless subscribers (2G, 3G and 4G) decreased from 1,160.59 million (116.05 crore) at the end of February 2020 to 1,157.75 million (117.57 crore) at the end of March 2020, thereby registering a monthly decline rate of 0.24 per cent," said the TRAI statement.
Wireless subscription in urban areas decreased from 64.3 crore at the end of February 2020 to 63.8 crore at the end of March, but in rural areas, it increased from 51.7 crore to 51.92 crore at the end of March, it said.
Out of the total wireless subscribers (1,157.75 million), 989.10 million wireless subscribers were active in the month of Mar-20. The proportion of active wireless subscribers was approximately 85.43% of the total wireless subscriber base, with Airtel having the most number of active subscribers.