Vodafone Idea, Airtel lost 5 million subscribers in September: TRAI
What's the story
Facing tough competition from Reliance Jio, telecom giants Airtel and Vodafone Idea continue to lose their subscriber base. According to the data provided by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), in the month of September, Airtel and Vodafone Idea lost over 5 million subscribers in total. Notably, in the same month, the Mukesh Ambani-owned Jio gained close to 7 million subscribers. Here's more.
Big loss
Vodafone Idea lost over 2.576 million subscribers in September
As per TRAI's data, Vodafone Idea lost over 2.576 million subscribers in the month of September. By the end of September 2019, Vodafone's user base stood at 372.486 million. A similar downfall was faced by Airtel also, which saw its consumer base reduce from 327.952 million in August to 325.567 million in the following month.
Information
However, Vodafone Idea still leads the telecom market
Vodafone Idea still leads the telecom sector, having 31.73% of the total market share. Reliance Jio, thanks to its fast growth, is a close second with a 30.26% market share. And finally, Airtel is on the third position with a 27.74% market hold.
Growth momentum
Reliance Jio added nearly 7 million new users
While Airtel and Vodafone Idea lost a significant number of users in the 30-day duration of September, Reliance Jio maintained its growth momentum. The telecom major climbed to 355.223 million subscribers by the end of the month, adding as many as 6.983 million more users from August. Interestingly, BSNL's subscriber base also marginally increased from 116.234 million in August to 116.972 million in September.
Data
Total telecom subscribers grew by close to 0.3% in September
In the month of September, the total number of subscribers in India grew by 0.29% with the user count increasing from 1,191.81 million at the end of August 2019 to 1,195.24 million by September-end.