Reliance Jio, the country’s largest telecom operator, added a little more than 10 lakh mobile subscribers in the month of February, taking its wireless subscriber tally to over 42.71 crore users as against 42.61 crore in January.
As per the latest data released by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the Sunil Mittal-led Bharti Airtel gained 9.82 lakh mobile users during February, increasing its wireless subscriber base to 36.98 crore.
Vodafone Idea, on the other hand, continued to lose subscribers and cede market share during the month. The telecom operator lost 20 lakh subscribers in the wireless category as its mobile subscriber base shrunk to 23.79 crore.
Total wireless subscribers decreased 0.09% to 114.19 crore at the end of February from 114.3 crore at the end of January.
“Wireless subscriptions in urban areas decreased from 627.13 million at the end of January 2023 to 626.37 million and wireless subscriptions in rural areas also decreased from 515.89 million to 515.60 million during the same period. Monthly decline rates of urban and rural wireless subscriptions were 0.12 per cent and 0.06 per cent, respectively,” TRAI said in a release.
Brokerage firm Prabhudas Lilladher believes that the telecom industry will continue to consolidate with Top-2 players gaining subscriber share at expense of peers.
“For Bharti Airtel we have factored in net mobile subscriber addition of 23 million and is our preferred pick in the space with SOTP based PT of ₹977,” the brokerage said.
Meanwhile, the total Broadband Subscribers in the country increased to 83.93 crore in February from 83.92 crore, registering a monthly growth rate of 0.02%.
Top five service providers constituted 98.38% market share of the total broadband subscribers at the end of February 2023.
“These service providers were Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd 435.20 million, Bharti Airtel 239.70 million, Vodafone Idea 123.74 million, BSNL 24.92 million and Atria Convergence 2.14 million,” TRAI added.
At 1:15 pm, shares of Reliance Industries were trading 0.13% lower at ₹2,475 apiece, Bharti Airtel up 0.40% at ₹791.85 and Vodafone Idea down 1.40% at ₹7.02 on the BSE.
Catch all the Business News , Market News , Breaking News Events and Latest News Updates on Live Mint. Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates.