According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) data, Bharti Airtel (Airtel) added 300 percent more wireless subscribers in January 2021 than Reliance Jio. Monthly data released by the regulator shows that New Delhi-Headoffice Airtel added more than 58.9 lakh wireless subscribers during the month of January, while Mumbai-based Jio added more than 19.5 lakh new wireless subscribers.
However, Jio continued to lead the telecom sector with the country’s largest wireless subscriber base. Data provided by TRAI shows that Jio’s total wireless subscriber base exceeded 410.73 million i.e. 41 crore in January. On the other hand, Airtel grew to 344.60 million wireless subscribers. Jio’s market share declined to 35.30 percent in January from 35.43 percent in December. However, Airtel improved slightly and reached 29.62 percent from 29.36 percent market share in December 2020.
Airtel overtakes Jio for the second time in a row
Airtel achieved monthly growth with growth of 1.74 percent recorded in January while Jio registered a growth of 0.48 percent. Likewise, from the Active Wireless Subscriber which can be suggested by the Visitor Local Register (VLR) data, Airtel has outgrew Jio for the second consecutive time in January with its 335.77 million VLR customers. However, Jio had 324.52 million VLR subscribers in January.
VLR is a database that stores information about users moving in a particular network. A user can be present in only one VLR at any time. Thus, it is a better estimate of the number of active users who are currently in the network.
What happened to other telecom companies
Apart from Airtel and Jio, Vodafone Idea (Vi) managed to add more than 1.71 million wireless subscribers in January. According to TRAI figures, the operator had a total of 285.96 million wireless subscribers. BSNL also added 81,659 wireless subscribers during the month of January, which helped it reach a total wireless subscriber base of 118.69 million. The market share of Vi decreased from 24.58 percent in December to 24.64 percent in January. BSNL also saw a slight decline in its market share from 10.29 per cent last month.
read this also- Nokia will lay off 10,000 employees, further, the company’s focus will be on this plan
Also read- Chinese hackers move to know about 5G technology, targeted telecom companies around the world