State-owned, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) continued to gain mobile subscribers base, with a net addition of more than five-lakh customers in October, while private players Reliance Jio (Jio) and Vodafone-Idea (VIL) lost more than 37-lakh and 19-lakh subscribers respectively.
Among the private players, only Bharti Airtel (Airtel) managed to gain subscribers with more than 19-lakh customers during the month, the latest monthly data shared by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) indicated.
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According to the Authority, total wireless subscribers decreased from 1,153.72 million at the end of September to 1,150.42 million at the end of October, thereby registering a monthly decline rate of 0.29 per cent.
“Wireless subscription in urban areas decreased from 628.12 million at the end of September to 625.56 million at the end of October 2024, and wireless subscription in rural areas also decreased from 525.60 million to 524.86 million during the same period. Monthly decline rate of urban and rural wireless subscription was 0.41 per cent and 0.14 per cent respectively,” TRAI said.
Therefore, the wireless tele-density in India also decreased from 82.07 per cent at the end of September to 81.77 per cent at the end of October. The Urban Wireless Tele density decreased from 125.08 per cent at the end of September to 124.38 per cent at the end of October and Rural Tele-density also decreased from 58.16 per cent to 58.06 per cent during the same period, it added.
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The share of urban and rural wireless subscribers in total number of wireless subscribers was 54.38 per cent and 45.62 per cent respectively at the end of October, TRAI said.
As of October-end, Jio is the largest mobile operator with 460.02 million subscribers, followed by Airtel at 278.76 million, VIL with 125.43 million and BSNL with 32.15 million subscribers.
However, in the wireline subscribers (landline), Jio had the maximum net addition with more than 6.85 lakh subscribers, followed by Airtel with 2.2-lakh customers. However, BSNL lost the most with 35,953 subscribers, followed by VIL with 16,675 subscribers.
According to TRAI, wireline subscribers increased from 36.93 million at the end of September to 37.79 million at the end of October. Net increase in the wireline subscriber base was 0.85 million with a monthly rate of growth 2.31 per cent, it said.
The overall wireline tele-density in India increased from 2.63 per cent at the end of September to 2.69 per cent at the end of October this year. Urban and Rural Wireline tele-density were 6.93 per cent and 0.32 per cent respectively during the same period, it added.