Reliance Jio beats Bharti Airtel, adds 4.3 million users in February

Total wireless subscribers increased from 1.1 billion, in January to 1.2 billion in February, thereby registering a monthly growth rate of 0.72 per cent.

Reliance Jio added 4.3 million and Bharti Airtel added 3.7 million users to their networks in February, according to latest data by the telecom regulator.

Vodafone Idea barely added 652,625 subscribers to its network in the month of February, shows Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) data.

Total wireless subscribers increased from 1.1 billion, in January to 1.2 billion in February, thereby registering a monthly growth rate of 0.72 per cent.

Out of the total wireless subscribers, 981.92 million wireless subscribers were active users.

The proportion of active wireless subscribers was approximately 84.09 per cent of the total wireless subscriber base.

Bharti Airtel has the maximum proportion (97.47 per cent) of its active wireless subscribers.

Wireless subscription in urban areas increased from 633.27million at the end of January 2021 to 639.24 million, in February and wireless subscription in rural areas also increased from 526.15 million to 528.47 million during the same period.

All service areas except Bihar and Himachal Pradesh showed growth in their wireless subscribers during the month of February.

Mumbai area showed maximum growth of 4.83 per cent in its wireless subscriber base during the month.

Wireline subscribers increased from 20.08 million, in January 2021, to 20.19 million at the end of February 2021.

Net increase in the wireline subscriber base was 0.11 million with a monthly growth rate of 0.54 per cent.

The share of urban and rural subscribers in total wireline subscribers were 91.52 per cent and 8.48 per cent, respectively, in February.

In January, Bharti Airtel added 6.9 million active users, while Reliance Jio added 3.4 million subscribers to its tally.

Photograph: Shailesh Andrade/Reuters