Airtel overtakes Jio to become the largest operator by ‘Active’ subscriber base in October 2020: TRAI Report

October saw Reliance Jio picking up pace in new wireless subscriber additions compared to September but still trailing Airtel in the new adds. Airtel on the other hand managed to boast a marginally higher active subscriber base compared to Jio though it still lags behind in the overall subscriber base. Vodafone Idea continued to cede ground to the two larger rivals resulting in the shrinking of its subscriber market share.

The overall wireless subscriber base increased marginally by 3.23 million from 1148.58 million at the end of September to 1151.81 million at the end of October 2020. The overall wireline subscriber base decreased marginally by 0.09 million from 20.08 million at the end of September to 19.99 million at the end of October 2020.

Wireless Subscriber Market share:

As of 31st October, 2020 Reliance Jio is leading with 35.28% wireless subscriber market share which translates to 406.36 million subscribers, Bharti Airtel is at second position with 28.68% market share (330.29 million subscribers), whereas Vodafone Idea comes third with 25.42% market share (292.84 million subscribers). BSNL commands 10.33% (118.98 million) while MTNL commands just 0.29% market share (3.33 million).

Wireless Subscriber Gain/Loss in October:

Bharti Airtel led the new wireless subscriber addition race in October 2020 with 3.6 million net additions, Reliance Jio was close on its heels with 2.2 million net adds. Vodafone Idea lost over 2.6 million subscribers in September while BSNL lost over 10.2 thousand wireless subscribers and MTNL lost over 7.3 thousand.

Active subscriber base, VLR data:

Visitor location register (VLR) is an indicator of what percentage of the total subscriber base is comprised of active users. Bharti Airtel leads the race with a VLR score of over 96% which implies it has the lowest inactive user base of 10.75 million, it is followed by Vodafone Idea with a score of over 88% (inactive user base 32.86 million). Reliance Jio has a VLR score of over 78% (inactive user base 87.01 million) whereas BSNL lags behind with a score of 51% (inactive user base 57.6 million).

Wireline subscriber market share:

BSNL continues to lead with 37.84% share of the wireline subscriber market share in October 2020, which translates to 7.56 million subscribers. Bharti Airtel commands 22.33% share (4.46 million subscribers). MTNL follows with 15.04% share (3 million subscribers). Reliance Jio holds 11.63% share (2.32 million subscribers). Vodafone Idea holds only 2.58% share (0.51 million subscribers).

Wireline Subscriber Gain/Loss in October:

Reliance Jio added over 2.4 lakh new wireline connections in October 2020, followed by Bharti Airtel who added over 48 thousand new connections. Vodafone Idea added 9.4 thousand new wireline connections whereas MTNL lost over 24 thousand. BSNL continued the trend of losing subscribers with the loss of over 1.7 lakh connections in October.

Broadband subscriber market share:

Broadband is considered when the speed offered is higher than 512 Kbps irrespective of it being a wired or wireless connection. As on 31st October 2020, the top five Wired Broadband Service providers by subscriber base were BSNL (7.75 million), Bharti Airtel (2.67 million), Atria Convergence Technologies (1.74 million), Reliance Jio Infocom Ltd (1.70 million) and Hathway Cable & Datacom (1.05 million). The top five Wireless Broadband Service providers were Reliance Jio Infocom Ltd (406.36 million), Bharti Airtel (167.56 million), Vodafone Idea (120.49 million), BSNL (18.12 million) and Tikona Infinet (0.31 million).