TRAI data shows huge decline in Airtel and Vodafone’s list of subscribers

TRAI reveals that mobile subscriber base of Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel declined by nearly 14.5 million and 15.1 million respectively. Nearly 30 million subscribers of them as of March over the previous month has been lost while Reliance Jio added 9.4 million users.

Except Jio, all other companies have lost subscribers in March.

India’s total wireless subscriber base fell to 1,161.8 million on March 31, 2019, shedding 21.87 million users over the previous month. The overall tele-density in India declined to 90.11 at the end of March, from 91.86 in February.

According to TRAI, the wireless subscriber base of Vodafone Idea at the end of March 2019 was 394.8 million. VIL’s last quarter of 2018-19 total user base was at 334.1 million.

Bharti Airtel’s mobile subscriber base was 325.1 million, and that of rival Reliance Jio was 306.7 million as on March 2019.

As on March 31, 2019, Vodafone Idea leads the market share at 33.98% followed by Airtel at 27.99% and Reliance Jio at 26.40% and BSNL at 9.96%.

“Total wireless subscribers declined from 1,183.68 million at the end of Feb-19 to 1,161.81 million at the end of Mar-19, thereby registering a monthly decline rate of 1.85%,” said the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) report released on Tuesday.

The wireless subscription in urban areas declined to 650.49 million in March end from 656.57 million in February end, and rural user base also plunged to 511.32 million from 527.11 million during the period.

The customers base of Reliance Jio was 306.7 million as on March 2019, against 297.2 million as on February.