Reliance Jio topples BSNL to become India’s largest fixed-line service provider

BSNL has been providing wireline services for the last 22 years, while Jio launched its services three years ago. The wireless subscribers in the country grew to 2.59 crore in August from 2.56 crore in July.

Jio topples BSNL in fixed line service

Jio has added 2.62 lakh new customers and while Bharti Airtel has added 1.19 lakh. The state-run telecom firms BSNL and MTNL lost 15,734 and 13,395 wireline customers, respectively, in August. This means only Jio and Airtel added a significant amount of new customers in the month.

The overall telecom subscriber base in the country grew marginally to 17.5 crores in August, with Jio adding the highest new customers and rural areas growing at a higher rate than urban centres, according to the TRAI report. “The number of telephone subscribers in India increased from 1,173.66 million at the end of July-22 to 1,175.08 million at the end of August-22, thereby showing a monthly growth rate of 0.12 per cent,” said TRAI’s subscriber report for August 2022.

The monthly growth rates of urban and rural telephone subscriptions were 0.10 and 0.14 percent, respectively. Vi has lost 9.58 lakh mobile customers, BSNL lost 5.67 lakh, and MTNL lost 470, according to the report.

Broadband customers in the country grew 0.81 per cent to 81.39 crores in August from 80.74 crores in July. The top five service providers constituted 98.39 percent market share of the total broadband subscribers in August. Reliance Jio had 42.58 crore broadband subscribers, Bharti Airtel had 22.39 crore, Vi has 12.31 crore, BSNL had 2.58 crore and Atria Convergence had 21.3 lakh broadband subscribers in August, according to the report.