The domestic telecom subscriber base rose slightly to 1,170.75 million in January, driven by increased net customers in the landline segment, according to the industry regulator’s TRAI report released on Friday.
Net profit in the wireline segment was 0.28 million customers while mobile phone segment recorded a net increase of 0.09 million subscribers.
In spite of Jio’s dependency And Bharti Airtel together with 0.29 million new customers, the profit is offset by BSNL And Vodafone Idea (VIL) lost 0.28 million customers.
“The number of phone subscribers in India increased from 1,170.38 million at the end of December 2022 to 1,170.75 million at the end of January 2023, showing a monthly growth rate of 0.03%. “, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India said in its subscriber report for January 2023.
Domestic wired or fixed line connections increased to 27.73 million in January from 27.45 million in December.
Growth in the wireline segment was driven by Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Quadrant, which added 0.21 million, 0.11 million and 5,949 customers, respectively.
State-owned MTNL was the biggest loser in the segment, losing 29,857 customers. Next was BSNL, which lost 19,781 fixed customers, Tata Teleservices 9,444, VIL 3,727 and Reliance Communications 275 customers.
In the mobile or wireless segment, Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel added 1.65 million and 1.28 million customers, respectively. BSNL, VIL and MTNL slowed down growth in the segment as they lost 1.48 million, 1.35 million and 2,960 mobile subscribers respectively.
The domestic broadband subscriber base grew to 839.18 million in January from 832.2 million in December.
“The top five service providers accounted for 98.39% market share in total broadband subscriptions at the end of January 23. These service providers are Reliance Jio Infocomm (434.02 million), Bharti Airtel (237.40 million), Vodafone Idea (125.03 million), BSNL (27.05 million) and Atria Convergence (2.14 million)”, TRAI said.
