Bharti Airtel added the maximum number of subscribers in March at 2.25 million, followed by Reliance Jio, which added 1.26 million subscribers. Despite losing subscribers for past few months, Jio has been increasing its active user base by weeding out inactive subscribers from its network. Vodafone Idea continues to lose subscribers with a decline of 2.81 million in March.
As per data shared by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), the total wireless subscribers in March increased to 1,142.09 million from 1,141.53 million last month.
In terms of percentage of active subscribers, Bharti Airtel continues to lead with 98.74% followed by Reliance Jio with 93.80%. The percentage of Jio was marginally down as compared to last month. Vodafone Idea’s percentage of active subscribers stood at 86.70%.
In terms of wireless broadband or 4G subscribers, Jio added 1.26 million while Bharti Airtel added 2.07 million. Vodafone Idea added 550,000 users in the same period.
In wireline broadband, Jio added 240,000 users followed by Bharti Airtel with 100,000 additions.
The mobile number portability (MNP) continues to be high with 9.64 million requests in March. The tariff hikes seem to have slowed down 4G subscriber additions, leading operators to poach from rival networks to boost their user base. Since all the operators had hiked tariffs last year, there has been SIM consolidation with several users surrendering their second or third connection. Additionally, with changes in tariff packs they have moved from one network to another depending on which one offers comparatively cheaper services to them as per their requirements.
