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Airtel adds 12 million 4G subscribers in Oct, Nov

NEW DELHI :
Bharti Airtel added 12 million 4G subscribers during October-November, according to data submitted by the company to the Telecom Regulatory of Authority India Ltd (Trai). Of this, the company added 5 million 4G users in October and 7 million in November.

“This is a five-fold jump over the monthly average of around 1.5 million additions,” a Bharti Airtel executive told Mint.

The telecom operator earlier this year rolled out a loyalty programme for subscribers called Airtel Thanks which hands out benefits such as access to Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, preference in customer care, etc, based on a tier structure of monthly tariff.

“We are confident of exiting the quarter with record net 4G subscriber addition,” the executive said.

Airtel has pan-India 4G network and had earlier this year announced its plans to shut down 3G network across the country by March 2020, and redeploy the spectrum for 4G. It has already shut down 3G networks in Haryana, Kolkata and Punjab and upgraded users to 4G. It continues to operate 2G network.

The company, however, remains way behind its bitter rival Jio which had 355.2 million 4G users as of September end. Airtel had a total of 125.42 million 4G users and Vodafone Idea had 112.17 million 4G users as of September end, according to data published by Trai.

The regulator has not published data for the subsequent months.

Source: Livemint