Bharti Airtel pipped Reliance Jio in new mobile subscriber addition in September right after a gap of 4 years, according to information published by telecom regulator Trai on Thursday.
Reliance Jio had maintained leadership position in month-to-month mobile subscriber addition considering that the launch of its industrial operations in September 2016. It had added 15.97 million new prospects when it commenced industrial operations.
Bharti Airtel led mobile subscriber development in September 2020 with a net addition of 3.77 million new prospects. It was followed by Reliance Jio with net addition of 1.46 million and BSNL with 78,454 new prospects.
Vodafone Idea was the largest loser as it lost 4.65 million subscribers through the reported month. MTNL and Reliance Communications lost 5,784 and 1,324 prospects, respectively.
Reliance Jio led the market place in terms of general mobile subscriber base with 404.12 million prospects. It was followed by Bharti Airtel with 326.61 million subscribers, Vodafone Idea with 295.49 million prospects, BSNL with 118.89 million subscribers and MTNL with 3.33 million prospects.
The total telecom subscriber base in the nation improved marginally to 1,168.66 million in the reported month from 1,167.81 million in August.
The total wireless or mobile telephony subscriber base improved to 1,148.58 million in September 2020 from 1,147.92 million in August 2020.
The landline buyer base in the nation also improved to 20.08 million in September from 19.89 million in August.
The development in the landline segment was driven by private operators. Reliance Jio added more than 3,03,205 prospects. It was followed by Bharti Airtel which added 66,335 new prospects, Vodafone Idea with 22,042 prospects, Quadrant with 6,359 subscribers and Tata Teleservices with 3,606 prospects.
Public sector telecom firms BSNL and MTNL lost 1,82,549 and 19,566 landline prospects, respectively. Reliance Communications was the only private player that lost landline prospects through the reported month.
Broadband subscribers in the nation improved by 1.41 per cent to 726.32 million in September from 716.19 million in August.
Top 5 service providers, which incorporate Reliance Jio (405.65 million prospects), Bharti Airtel (166 million), Vodafone Idea (119.85 million), BSNL (24.83 million) and Atria Convergence (1.73 million), accounted for 98.86 per cent of the market place share, the report stated.