Reliance Jio, the number one telecom operator of India, has regained its subscriber addition rate as the telco outperformed its major competitor Bharti Airtel in March 2021. The telco added the most number of subscribers and beat Bharti Airtel by a long margin during the month. According to the Monthly report from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), Jio added 79,18,129 (close to 8 million) subscribers in March 2021. Compared to this, Bharti Airtel added 40,55,109 (4.05 million) users during the same period. But this wasn’t just a good month for Reliance Jio. Vodafone Idea (Vi), after a long-long time, has added subscribers in consecutive months. Vi added 10,88,792 (1.08 million) subscribers in March 2021.
Reliance Jio Ends Airtel’s Sweet Run of Adding More Subscribers
Reliance Jio got ahead of Airtel in the earlier months itself, but the Mukesh Ambani led telco was ahead of Airtel by a huge margin in March 2021 in adding subscribers. However, one of the best things for the industry this month would be to see Vodafone Idea (Vi) regaining its ground slowly. It seems like people are impressed by Vi’s networks. Back in February 2021, Vodafone Idea had added 0.65 million subscribers. Compared to that, the telco has added 1.08 million subscribers in March 2021. That is a significant growth rate for the telco in terms of subscribers addition. As for the state-run telco, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), things went pretty sweet as well. While BSNL had lost 0.35 million subscribers in February 2021, it has added over 0.19 million subscribers in March 2021. Even though BSNL’s numbers aren’t impressive at all, at least they are not in the red.
Kerala Only Major State to Lose Wireless Subscribers
In an interesting turn of events, Kerala was the only state in March 2021 which lost wireless subscribers. Apart from Kerala, all service areas added wireless subscribers. The most came from Mumbai, which showed a growth of 2.39% in terms of wireless subscribers. Further, the best numbers in terms of active subscribers (VLR subscribers) came from Bharti Airtel, which had an active subscriber base of 97.72% users, which is much more compared to Jio’s 78.43%. Even Vodafone Idea’s 90.13% subscribers come under the active category. This is still an area that Jio needs to address.
