TRAI reports 0.87% drop in wireless subscribers in September; BSNL gains ground

Telecom Regularity Authority of India (TRAI) has released the telecom subscription data for September month. As per the data, the wireline subscribers increased from 36.23 million at the end of August 2024 to 36.93 million at the end of September 2024 with a monthly rate of growth 1.93% while the total wireless subscribers decreased from 1,163.83 million at the end of August 2024, to 1,153.72 million at the end of September 2024, thereby registering a monthly decline rate of 0.87%.

TRAI data reveals that Reliance Jio with a market share of around 40 per cent, lost 7.9 million wireless customer, followed by Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel with 1.5 million and 1.4 million customers, respectively. Interestingly, BSNL is the only telecom company which has added wireless customers in September. BSNL has added 8,49,493 customers. When it comes to wireline subscribers, Reliance Jio has added 6,34,197 customers, followed by Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea with 98,637 and 25,017 customers, respectively. However, state-run BSNL could not add up to its customer bases and lost out on 52,445 customers.

Additionally, the number of M2M cellular mobile connections increased from 54.07 million at the end of August 2024, to 54.64 million at the end of September 2024. According to the TRAI data, Bharti Airtel has the highest number of M2M cellular mobile connections 28.44 million with a market share of 52.06%, followed by Vodafone Idea, Reliance Jio and BSNL with market share of 27.12%, 15.29% and 5.54%, respectively.

When it comes to active wireless subscribers, out of the total 1,153.72 million wireless subscribers, 1059.97 million wireless subscribers were active on the date of peak VLR in the month of September. The proportion of active wireless subscribers was approximately 91.87% of the total wireless subscriber base. Bharti Airtel Limited has the maximum proportion 99.27% of its active wireless subscribers (VLR) as against its total wireless subscribers (HLR) on the date of peak VLR in the month of September and MTNL has the minimum proportion of VLR 27.08% of its HLR during the same period.

Similarly, the number of total telephone subscribers in India decreased from 1,200.07 million at the end of August 2024 to 1,190.66 million at the end of September 2024, thereby showing a monthly decline rate of 0.78%. Urban telephone subscription decreased from 666.58 million to 662.15 million and the rural subscription also decreased from 533.49 million to 528.51 million during the same period.

Moreover, the three private telecom companies increased their mobile rates by 11-25% in early July, resulting in a significant decline in their subscriber base.