Industry regulator TRAI said on Thursday the country’s telecom subscriber base rose slightly to 1,173.89 million as of end-June, driven by an increase in new customers led by Reliance Jio.
The growth in user base was driven by mobile telephony, with Reliance Jio adding over 2.27 million new customers and Bharti Airtel adding 1.4 million customers.
“The number of telephone subscribers in India increased at a monthly rate of 0.11% from 1,172.57 million at end-May-23 to 1,173.89 million at end-June-23,” Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said in its monthly subscriber report.
However, losses at state-owned BSNL, MTNL and Vodafone Idea (VIL) dampened overall growth.
BSNL lost 1.87 million mobile subscribers, VIL lost 1.28 million subscribers, MTNL (1,52,912 subscribers).
In June, the net increase of wireless subscribers of telecom operators was 3,73,602.
“Total wireless subscribers increased from 1,143.21 million at end-May-23 to 1,143.58 million at end-June-23, representing a monthly growth rate of 0.03%,” Trai said.
Wired connections increased in June after a slight decline in May.
Wireline growth was driven by APFPL, which added 6,56,424 new connections. It was followed by Reliance Jio with 2,08,014 connections, Bharti Airtel (1,34,021), V-Con Mobile and Infra (13,100), Tata Teleservices (12,617) and Quadrant with 6,540 connections in June .
According to the report, the total number of broadband users increased from 856.81 million at the end of May to 861.47 million at the end of June 2023, a monthly growth rate of 0.54%.
“Top five service providers accounted for 98.37 per cent of the total broadband subscribers as of end-June, 23. These service providers are Reliance Jio Infocomm 447.75 million, Bharti Airtel 248.06 million, Vodafone Idea 124.9 million, BSNL 24.59 million and Atria Convergence 216 million,” the report said.
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