NEW DELHI: Despite gaining active customers every month, Bharti Airtel, country’s second-largest telecom service provider, has seen its market share remain stagnant at 32.95% in January, compared to 32.45% in the same month the previous year in the mobile segment.
According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the telco’s market share has remained unchanged for the past two months, in December 2023 and January 2024.
However, Reliance Jio’s market share grew significantly, rising from 37.90% in April 2023 to 39.97% in January 2024. This indicates that customers leaving Vodafone Idea Limited (VIL) or Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) are primarily switching to Jio.
The gap between the top two spots, Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, is approximately 7%, and it continues to widen month-on-month. Taking a closer look at TRAI data, Bharti Airtel’s market share was 32.91% in November 2023, 32.85% in October and September, 32.78% in August, 32.74% in July, 32.68% in June, 32.57% in May, and 32.45% in April.
However, when it comes to active users, Airtel dominates the market as the company added a total of 3.6 million active users in January 2024, bringing its total active user base to 381.1 million. It is followed by Jio, which added 1.1 million, reaching 425.6 million active users in January, while Vodafone Idea lost 1.7 million active users, bringing its active subscriber count to 194.9 million in January 2024.
On the other hand, BSNL lost 228,043 subscribers, reducing its active user base to 48.3 million. Even if it is not able to increase market share, Airtel can boast of the quality of users, which is best in the industry. Airtel leads the industry with an ARPU of Rs 208, surpassing Jio’s Rs 182 and Vodafone Idea’s Rs 145.