Airtel loses 1.6 mln customers, BSNL gains 2.9 mln customers after July tariff hike: TRAI

Government-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) gained subscribers following the increase in tariff announced by other major telecom operators, including Jio, Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel, in July 2023. According to the Telecom Subscription Data shared by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) for the month of July 2024, BSNL gained 2.9 million subscribers, while Airtel lost 1.69 million subscribers in the month of July.

Reliance's Jio and Vi also lost subscribers in the month of July, however, their decline in the number of subscribers wasn't as steep as that of Airtel. While Vodafone Idea lost 1.4 million subscribers, Reliance Jio lost 7.58 million subscribers in July 2024.

Wireless subscribers decrease in July 2024

According to the data shared by TRAI, India also witnessed a decline in the total number of wireless subscribers in the month of July 2024. The total number of wireless subscribers decreased from 1,170.53 million at the end of June 2024 to 1,169.61 million at the end of July 2024 marking a monthly decline rate of around 0.08 percent.

Interestingly, TRAI's report showed that while the wireless subscriptions in urban areas increased from 635 million at the end of June 2024 to 635.46 million at the end of July 2024, wireless subscriptions in rural areas decreased from
535.53 million at the end of June 2024 to 534.15 million at the end of July 2024.

"Except Jammu and Kashmir, Odisha , Himachal Pradesh , Madhya Pradesh , Kolkata, Karnataka, Delhi, Gujarat , Assam and UP(West) all other service areas have showed decline in their wireless subscribers during the month of July 24," TRAI wrote in its report.

Wireline subscribers increase in July 2024

While wireless subscribers decreased, wireline subscribers increase in India in the month of July 2024. The data shared by TRAI showed that wireline subscribers increased from 35.11 million at the end of June 2024 to 35.56 million at the end of July 2024. Jio led this segment capturing 38.46 percent of the market. It was followed by Airtel and BSNL capturing 25.85 percent and 17.53 percent of the market respectively.

Mobile Network Portability (MNP) requests increase in India

TRAI data also showed that mobile number portability requests increased in India in the month of July 2024. "In the month of July, 2024, 13.68 million subscribers submitted their requests for Mobile Number Portability (MNP). With this, the cumulative MNP requests increased from 997.44 million at the end of June-24 to 1011.13 million at the end of July-24, since implementation of MNP," TRAI wrote in its report.