Airtel adds more wired subscribers than Jio in Nov'23: Trai

Sunil Mittal-led private telecom, Bharti Airtel, has topped the charts in India’s telecom industry (in the wired segment) in November 2023. The Delhi-based telecom has added highest number of 1.56 lakh new wireline subscribers in the month under consideration. For a long time, billionaire, Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio had added highest number of wireless subscribers on monthly basis. But, Airtel by tapping on its wired network solutions the ‘Airtel Fiber’ brand, has changed this trend to leave its rival behind. The Mittal Group telecom added 21 per cent more subscribers than its rival Jio. The latter added 1.28 lakh new wired subscribers in the concerned month.

Airtel’s leap over Jio in the month of November 2023 has helped the telecom increase its market share in the wired segment to 26 per cent. But still, Jio continued to reign over India’s telecom industry with 34 per cent market share in the wired segment. Actually, the Ambani owned telecom rules in wireless segment as well with 39 per cent market share.

On the other hand, Aditya Birla Group telecom, Vodafone India, added 5,952 number of wired subscribers in November 2023. VI’s market share in the wired segment hovered around 2 per cent by Novernmer 2023 end.

While, state owned telecoms BSNL and MTNL continued to lose wired customers. The two public telecoms lost 34,482 and 7,231 subscribers, respectively in the month of November 2023. Public telecoms continued to lose market share in this segment. Their market share now stands at 28 per cent. While, private telecoms’ market share flared up to 71 per cent. Slowly slowly, state owned telecoms are losing market share to private peers in the wired segment.

Talking about wireless segment, Airtel ranked second after Jio in terms of grabbing new subscribers in November 2023. The Ambani Group owned telecom gained 34.47 lakh new subscribers. While, the Mittal Group telecom added 17.47 lakh new wireless subscribers. At the same time, Vodafone Idea lost more than 10 lakh customers in the wireless segment.

On the other hand, public telecom BSNL lost 9.33 lakh wireless subscribers in second last month of calendar year 2023. While, MTNL lost 4,242 customers in the same month.

Just like in wireline segment, public telecoms are losing market share to private peers in wireless segment as well.

Market share of private telecoms in the wireless segment flared to up to 92 per cent while that of state owned telecoms fell to 8.15 per cent.

Overall, the telecom industry as a whole added net of 31.8 lakh new wireless and 2.4 lakh new wired subscribers in November. Currently, the total number of subscribers in the country stand at 118.58 crore.