India adds 5.5 million mobile users in August; Jio, Airtel drive bulk of gains: TRAI

India added 5.5 million mobile subscribers in August, taking the country's wireless subscriber base to 1.29 billion, with Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel accounting for more than 4.5 million of the net additions, according to data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

The wireless subscriber base rose from about 1.28 billion in July, registering monthly growth of 0.43%. The increase was led largely by urban areas, where wireless subscriptions grew 0.70% to 748.84 million. Rural wireless subscriptions rose just 0.06% to 544.58 million during the month.

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Reliance Jio added 2.4 million subscribers in August, the highest among major telecom operators, followed by Bharti Airtel with 2.1 million additions. Vodafone Idea added about 506,000 subscribers, while state-owned BSNL added about 493,000.

Together, Jio and Airtel accounted for over 4.5 million of the 5.5 million net wireless additions recorded during the month.

Urban subscriptions drive growth

The divergence between urban and rural subscriber growth remained pronounced in August. Urban wireless connections expanded more than 11 times faster than rural connections on a monthly basis, according to the TRAI data.

In contrast, Reliance Communications saw its subscriber base decline by 87 connections, while MTNL lost about 5,900 subscribers during the month.

India's overall telephone subscriber base, which includes both wireless and wireline connections, also expanded to 1.36 billion in August from 1.35 billion in July, registering monthly growth of 0.47%.

The wireline subscriber base rose to 48.45 million from 48.01 million, translating into monthly growth of 0.93%.

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Broadband base crosses 1.1 billion

Overall tele-density improved to 95.07% in August from 94.68% in July. Urban tele-density stood at 155%, compared with 61.12% in rural areas.

The broadband subscriber base crossed the 1.1 billion mark during August, rising to 1.10 billion from 1.09 billion in July. It registered monthly growth of 0.61%, with the TRAI data covering 1,579 operators.

The August figures point to continued expansion in India's telecom market, although the monthly increase remained concentrated in mobile connections and urban areas.

(With inputs from ANI)