As it continues to speed up in its bid to catch up with Reliance Jio in the wireless market, Bharti Airtel is moving from strength to strength.
Bharti Airtel added a record 3.77 million subscribers in September 2020, exceeding Reliance Jio by more than two times, according to the latest data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). During the same time, Ambani-led Telco added 1.46 million subscribers.
Vodafone Idea, on the other hand, continued to haemorrhage users and lost 4.65 million subscribers.
In terms of total subscribers, Reliance Jio still has a healthy lead, according to the data released by TRAI. It now has 404.12 million subscribers, giving it an over 35 percent market share. With 326.61 million subscribers, Airtel leads, while the subscribers of Vodafone Idea dropped below 300 million for the first time since Vodafone and Idea were combined.
Though Bharti Airtel returns to winning ways in the wireless segment, in the wireline segment, Reliance Jio now faces a known threat.
Reliance Jio added over 3 lakh new landline subscribers, according to the TRAI information, with the expansion of its Jio Fiber service being the reason behind it. On the other hand, over 66,000 new customers were introduced by Airtel, less than five times that of Reliance Jio.
In the same time, public sector telecoms BSNL and MTNL together lost over 2 lakh subscribers.
There are 4.4 million subscribers to Airtel, while Jio has 2.1 million now.
BSNL topped the charts in September with 7.80 million subscribers coming to wired broadband service providers, led by Airtel with 2.60 million subscribers. Then with 1.52 million and 1.05 subscribers, Reliance Jio and Hathaway Cable will arrive.
Jio topped the charts with 404 when it comes to wireless broadband services. 13 million subscribers, with 163.41 million subscriptions, led by Airtel. This was followed by 119.84 million, 17.03 million and 0.31 subscriptions respectively for Vodafone Idea, BSNL and Tikona.
Recently, Bharti Airtel Ltd posted its highest consolidated quarterly consolidated revenue ever, powered by higher tariffs and an increase in data consumption from a change fuelled by coronavirus to remote work.
Indian telecom operators, struggling with low tariffs due to a price war that ensued after the entry into space of Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio, hiked prices last year as they were forced to pay government dues of around 92,000 cr.
This helped increase the company’s quarterly consolidated revenue by 22 percent to Rs. 25,785 crores compared to Rs. 21,131 crore a year ago due to “good portfolio-geography and segment growth,” a company statement said.
