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Business Standard

Over 99% new telecom subscribers join Reliance Jio, Airtel network in May

The total number of telecom subscribers in India grew marginally to 1,207 million in May, with Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel adding over 99 per cent of new customers during the month, according to data published by sector regulator Trai on Friday. The total net subscriber addition by telecom service providers was 4.36 million, while Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel jointly added 4.35 million, thereby accounting for 99.84% of the total net subscriber addition in May. The overall growth in subscriber base was offset by losses incurred by debt-ridden Vodafone Idea (Vi) and public sector firms BSNL and MTNL. India's total telecom subscriber base grew to 1,207 million, with landline connections rising by 3.34% to 38.6 million and mobile connections increasing to 1,168.4 million in May. The subscriber base in April was 1,203 million. Reliance Jio dominated the mobile subscriber base — including 5G FWA (fixed wireless access) connections — with a 40.92% share and a net addition of 2.7 million customers, taking its total wireless base to 472.4 million. Bharti Airtel held a 33.61% share, with a net addition of 275,000, bringing its total subscriber base to 390 million in May. Vi lost 274,000, BSNL 135,000, MTNL 470,000 and Reliance Communications lost 30 mobile subscribers in May. In the wireline segment, Reliance Jio led with a net subscriber addition of 1.276 million, followed by Bharti Airtel, which added around 99,000 million new subscribers. Tata Teleservices added 4,890, Vi 1,795, and STPL 252 new subscribers. State-run MTNL was the biggest loser of fixed-line customers in May, losing 66,834 while BSNL lost over 46,000 customers. The total number of broadband subscribers in the country reached 974.8 million in May. Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel submitted internet subscription data in the required format to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India after a five-month gap. Reliance Jio led the broadband segment with 494.4 million subscribers (including both mobile and wireless segments), followed by Bharti Airtel with 302 million, Vi 126.6 million, BSNL 34.3 million, and Atria Convergence 2.32 million. The 5G FWA subscriber base declined to 7.4 million in May from 7.5 million in April due to Reliance Jio shifting over 1 million Fixed Wireless Access - Unlicensed Band Radio (FWA-UBR) subscribers to the FTTx category, which falls under the fixed-line segment.