Telecom customer base declines in January, Airtel only gainer: TRAI

India’s telecom subscriber base declined marginally to 116.94 crore in January 2022, according to the latest data released by TRAI. The country had 117.84 crore telecom subscribers in December 2021.

“The number of telephone subscribers in India decreased from 1,178.41 million (117.84 crore) at the end of December 2021 to 1,169.46 million (116.94 crore) at the end of January 2022, thereby showing a monthly decline rate of 0.76%,” TRAI said.

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The number of telecom subscribers declined across most circles, except in Mumbai, Maharashtra and Jammu & Kashmir.

Mobile or the wireless segment accounts for nearly 98% of the total telecom subscriber base in the country. The number of wireless users dropped by 0.81% to 114.52 crore at the end of January from 115.46 crore at the end of December.

Bharti Airtel was the only gainer as it added 7.14 lakh mobile service subscribers.

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Reliance Jio was the biggest loser in the mobile services segment in January as it lost 93.22 lakh customers. Vodafone Idea lost 3.89 lakh, wireless subscribers, BSNL lost 3.77 lakh and MTNL lost 431 subscribers.

“Wireline subscribers increased from 23.79 million at the end of December 2021 to 24.21 million at the end of January 2022,” the TRAI report said.

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In the wireline segment, Reliance Jio was the biggest gainer as it added 3.08 lakh new customers. Bharti Airtel added 94,010 customers, BSNL added 32,098 and Quadrant added 16,749 customers.

MTNL was the biggest loser in the wireline segment in January. The company lost 23,475 customers. Vodafone Idea, RCom and Tata Teleservices were also among the losers.

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The broadband subscriber base also declined in the country. “Total broadband subscribers decreased from 792.08 million at the end of December 2921 to 783.43 million at the end of January 2022 with a monthly decline rate of 1.1%,” the report said.

With 41.12 crore subscribers, Reliance Jio led the broadband segment. According to the report, Bharti Airtel has 21 crore broadband subscribers, Vodafone Idea has 12.1 crore, BSNL has 2.62 crore, and Atria Convergence has 20 lakh.