Reliance Jio, Airtel and Vodafone Idea lose customers after July price hike; this telco gained users

Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vi (Vodafone Idea) have reported loss of customer base following a significant hike in mobile phone service tariffs implemented in July this year. According to the latest data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the overall telecom subscriber base in the country declined marginally to 1,205.17 million in July from 1,205.64 million in June.
TRAI data suggests that Bharti Airtel lost the highest number of mobile subscribers at 1.69 million. Vodafone Idea and Reliance Jio lost 1.41 million and 758 thousands mobile subscribers, respectively.

During the said period, state-run BSNL was the only player that added new subscribers and led the market in terms of new net customer addition. As per TRAI’s monthly subscribers report, BSNL gained over 2.94 million mobile subscribers in July
Following the increase in mobile service rates, several telecom circles across India experienced a decrease in their mobile customer base. The affected regions include North East, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Mumbai, Kolkata, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Bihar, West Bengal, UP East, Haryana and Andhra Pradesh.

The wireline or the fixed line connections segment in the country increased by about one per cent to 35.56 million in July from 35.11 million in June. Reliance Jio, followed by Airtel led the segment with addition of over 480 thousand and over 136 thousand new subscribers, respectively.
VMIPL 12,413, Vi 11,375, Tata Teleservices 3,971 and Quadrant added 12 new fixed line customers.
BSNL lost 134 thousand fixed line customers and its sister concern lost 56,454 customers.
In the broadband segment, the customer base increased to 946.19 million at the end of July from 940.75 million in June. Top five players accounted for 98.42 per cent of total broadband connection. These include Reliance Jio’s 488.63 million broadband customers, Airtel 284.03 million, Vodafone Idea 126.72 million, BSNL 29.61 million and Atria Convergence 2.26 million.