Reliance Jio surpasses Airtel in subscriber growth, Vodafone Idea and BSNL struggle

Reliance Jio pipped Bharti Airtel in mobile subscriber additions in July while Vodafone Idea and state-run BSNL ceded more ground.

As per data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) Friday, the country's largest operator Jio added 482,954 subscribers followed by second-largest telco Airtel, which added 464,437 during the reported period.

Vodafone Idea though lost 359,199 subscribers followed by BSNL, which lost 100,707 subscribers. Another state-run firm MTNL, too, lost 2m472 users in the month. MTNL offers services in Delhi and Mumbai, and its network is being maintained and operated by BSNL.


At the end of July, the wireless subscriber base of Jio stood at 477.50 million followed by Airtel at 391.47 million, Vodafone Idea at 203.85 million and BSNL at 90.36 million. In terms of broadband (wired and wireless) subscribers, Airtel added the most at 2.75 million customers followed by Jio, which added 1.41 million customers. Vodafone Idea, too, added around 0.18 million while BSNL added 0.59 million subscribers.

The broadband subscriber of Jio at the end of July stood at 498.47 million followed by Airtel at 307.07 million, Vodafone Idea at 127.58 million and BSNL at 34.27 million.