NEW DELHI: State-owned telecom service provider Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) added 8 lakh new subscribers in September 2024, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).
This is the third consecutive month that the telco has added customers, bringing its total subscriber base to 91.89 million and its market share to 7.98%. BSNL added 2.5 million customers in August 2024 and 2.94 million new subscribers in July 2024.
Meanwhile, private telecom service providers Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea Limited (VIL) continue to lose subscribers following tariff hikes implemented in June. In July 2024, all three private telecom providers raised their tariffs by up to 25%. Consequently, these telcos began losing subscribers that same month.
According to TRAI, overall, telcos lost 10 million customers in September 2024. Among them, India's largest telecom service provider, Reliance Jio, lost a significant 7.9 million customers in September, while Bharti Airtel lost 1.4 million and Vi lost 1.5 million subscribers that month.
With this loss, Jio's market share now stands at 40.20%, Bharti Airtel's at 33.24%, and Vodafone Idea's at 18.41%. Jio lost 4 million customers in August 2024, followed by Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, which lost 2.4 million and 1.87 million customers, respectively.
In July 2024, Bharti Airtel lost 1,694,300 subscribers, Vodafone Idea lost 1,413,910 subscribers, and Jio experienced a decline of 758,463 subscribers.
During the month of September 2024, a total of 13.32 million requests were received for Mobile Number Portability (MNP). Of the total 13.32 million, 7.48 million new requests were received from Zone-I and 5.84 million from Zone-II.
In MNP Zone-I (Northern and Western India), the highest number of requests to date have been received in Uttar Pradesh-East (about 100.56 million) followed by Maharashtra (about 84.93 million). In MNP Zone-II (Southern and Eastern India), the highest number of requests to date have been received in Madhya Pradesh (about 81.06 million) followed by Karnataka (about 70.24 million).