NEW DELHI: Vodafone Idea Ltd lost 4.8 million users in June, registering eight straight months of decline. Rival Bharti Airtel Ltd’s loss of users narrowed to 1.1 million from the previous two months when India’s economic activity came to a standstill due to cvoid-led lockdowns. At 4.5 million, Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd was the only telecom operator to have added customers in June.
Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio now has 34.8% wireless market share, while Airtel and Vodafone’s subscriber base stood at 27.8% and 26.8%, respectively, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) said on Thursday.
State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) lost 1.7 million users in June.
India’s overall mobile subscriber base — 2G, 3G and 4G–declined by 3.2 million in June, taking the total to 1.14 billion. However, the fixed-line subscriber base increased a marginal 40,000 to 19.8 million amid the government’s focus to improve broadband connectivity.
Reliance Jio, Airtel and Vodafone added fixed-line subscribers in June, at 2.2 lakh, 25,256 and 6,854, respectively. However, BSNL lost 1.8 lakh wireline customers in the reporting month.
Total subscription in urban areas decreased to 636.8 million in June from 637.9 million at the end of May. Unlike the previous two months which saw exodus of migrant workers from urban to rural areas due to lockdowns leading to a rise in number of subscribers in the latter, rural subscriptions declined to 523.7 million as of 30 June from 525.8 million a month ago.
“The monthly decline rates of urban and rural telephone subscription were 0.16% and 0.41%, respectively, during the month of June-20,” the telecom regulator said.
According to analysts, the loss of millions of mobile subscribers is due to deactivation by those holding multiple SIM cards, besides the migration of workers to their native places. Lack of physical recharge outlets added to the losses that started at the end of March.
In the fixed-broadband category, BSNL led with 7.9 million subscribers in June, followed by Bharti Airtel at 2.5 million, Atria Convergence Technologies at 1.7 million and Reliance Jio 1.1 million. Both Reliance Jio and Airtel have recently launched cheaper fixed broadband plans to attract customers in a tariff war-stricken market.
