Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) announced the Telecom Subscriber report for April 2021. According to TRAI Net Addition for wireless subscribers were 2.16 Million and for wireline subscribers were 0.12 Million. While Total Request for Mobile Number Portability (MNP) stands at 9.67 Million.
In the Wireless category, Jio Added the Most subscribers at 4.7 Million. Airtel came second with a Net Addition of 0.5 Million. While Vodafone Idea and BSNL lost 1.8 Million and 1.3 Million respectively. While All telecom saw a decrease in Net Addition in subscribers due to the current Second Lockdown situation. Vodafone Idea after 2 Months of Net Addition started again losing subscribers.
Wireless Subscribers
In Total for wireless subscriber Jio have the Most Subscribers at ~427 Million (~36% Market share). While Airtel has 352 Million (~30% Market share). And Vodafone Idea has 281 Million (~24% Market share). And BSNL has 117 Million (~10% Market Share). Although in Active users Airtel has the most active users at 98.31%. At second comes Vodafone Idea at 89.97%. While Jio stands at third with 78.37%. And at last BSNL with 51.97%. BSNL Subscribers are affected due to the current network condition. As BSNL is still under the process of deploying the 4G Network throughout India which is actually Hurting as private players are much ahead as private players are looking at Testing/deploying 5G. If BSNL can make the process much faster and deploy the 4G Network this year itself it might get out of the current struggles. While for Vodafone Idea the AGR liabilities and its debt is affecting its pace of adding and upgrading its 4G Network which is affecting its users in some of its markets.
Wireline Subscribers
In wireline subscribers, Jio again added the most subscribers at 1.94 Lakh. Airtel added 59 Thousand subscribers. While Vodafone Idea and Quadrant lost a slight 2551 Subscribers and 4130 subscribers. BSNL lost the most at 1 Lakh subscribers. Again BSNL is losing subscribers because of Not deploying the latest technology. BSNL had a Big Advantage before because of its extensive coverage even in Rural Areas. Now its Network is lagging behind because of the old technology that is Copper Cable Network and its reputation of having downtime in some areas. Although BSNL is deploying Fiber optic Networks extensively. If BSNL can upgrade current users to Fiber Network and with Better Marketing they can certainly add much more users.
Although in wireline there is a small addition. There might be a much larger addition because as Now Many Cable TV providers provide Broadband. And with their reach, they are gaining much more users as most big providers don’t have reach other than Main Cities/streets. As these Cable Broadband Numbers are not included. In the real world, there might be many more Added subscribers in wireline subscribers.
