Vodafone Idea Ltd lost 5.7 million customers in December, as the country’s total telecom subscriber base dropped to 1,173 million from 1,175 million in the previous month, a Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (Trai) report has said.
The drop in Vodafone’s customer base in December is the highest since March 2020.
Bharti Airtel led the wireless segment by adding 4 million customers, while Reliance Jio added 4,78,917 new customers during the month, the regulator’s December report shows.
Vodafone’s market share shrunk to 24.64 percent in December. While Airtel’s share expanded to 29.36 percent. At 35.43 percent, Reliance Jio continues to be India’s largest telecom operator by market share.
Along with the drop in the country’s telecom subscribers, the overall mobile subscriber base also shrunk to 1,153.77 million in December from 1,155.2 million in the previous month.
MTNL lost 6,442 mobile customers and BSNL 2,53,330.
“All service areas except Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Delhi, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Mumbai and Punjab showed growth in their wireless subscribers during December. Jammu & Kashmir showed the maximum growth of 0.99 percent in its wireless subscriber base,” TRAI said.
The highest growth rate in mobile subscriber base was recorded in Jammu and Kashmir, while the biggest decline was recorded in Punjab at 3.34 percent.
BSNL lost 2,55,909 fixed line (wireline) customers and MTNL 23,277 customers. Reliance Jio led customer addition in the wireline segment by adding 2,35,317 customers in December.
Broadband subscriber base in the country grew marginally to 747.41 million from 742.06 million in November.
Reliance Jio maintained its lead in the broadband segment with 410.84 million customers. It was followed by Bharti Airtel with 179 million broadband subscribers, Vodafone Idea’s 120.77 million in December as per the report.
The wireless broadband segment grew to 724.46 million connections in December from 719.53 million in November.
