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Reliance Jio has strengthened its lead at the top of India’s telecom sector by adding 4.2 Mn new subscribers over the month of June 2022, according to the latest Telecom Subscription Data report by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

Rival Bharti Airtel joined the Akash Ambani-led telco in recording growth during June 2022, adding 7.9 Lakh new subscribers to its user base. On the other end, Vodafone Idea (Vi) ceded more ground to its two rivals, losing 1.8 Mn subscribers in June.

State-owned telecom operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) also lost about a million subscribers in June, while MTNL lost a marginal amount of subscribers and Reliance Communications showed the same figure as May 2022.

Interestingly, Jio is on a winning streak that stretches all the way to March 2022. However, Airtel’s winning streak stretches further back; the Sunil Mittal-led telco has not seen red since October 2021.

At the same time, Vi has been haemorrhaging subscribers since March 2021, constantly losing subscribers over the last 15 months.

In terms of market share, Jio comfortably leads with a 36% market share. Airtel’s market share improved slightly to reach 31.63%, while Vi’s market share decreased to 22.37%. In all, private telecom players accounted for 90% of the market share in India’s telecom industry in June 2022.

In June 2022, Reliance Jio had 413 Mn subscribers, Bharti Airtel had around 363 Mn subscribers and Vodafone Idea had 256 Mn subscribers.

Bharti Airtel, however, stands on top as the telco with the best active subscribers ratio of 98.41%. After closing millions of inactive connections, Jio rallied to a second spot, with more than 92% of its subscribers being active. Vi had 85% active subscribers, finishing in the third spot.

Overall, India’s telecom industry had around 1,147.39 Mn wireless subscribers at the end of June 2022, growing 0.16% month-on-month. Of these, 625.49 Mn were urban subscribers while 521.90 Mn were rural subscribers. As such, 54.51% of the country’s total telecom users live in urban areas and 45.49% live in rural areas.

The growth in rural subscribers continues to outpace that of the urban subscribers; the number of rural telecom users increased by 0.18% while the urban users increased by 0.15%. The country’s total teledensity reached 83.27%. In urban areas, the teledensity dropped slightly to reach 129.82%, while in rural areas, teledensity increased to 58.24%.

The TRAI report also noted that in June 2022, over 9 Mn mobile number portability (MNP) requests were submitted, with the total MNP count reaching 714.56 Mn since the implementation of the system.

Wireline subscribers also increased from 25.23 Mn at the end of May 2022 to 25.57 Mn at the end of June 2022, registering a monthly growth rate of 1.32%.

BSNL remains the top dog in holding wireline subscribers’ market share with a 28.17% market share. However, it is a much closer fight as compared to the wireless subscribers’ market. Reliance Jio has a 27.29% market share and Bharti Airtel has a 23.58% market share in wireline.

With Jio gaining wireline subscribers along with Vodafone Idea and Airtel and with BSNL losing subscribers, it is a matter of time before Jio becomes the market leader in both wireless and wireline markets.

According to TRAI’s figures, India reached 800.94 Mn broadband subscribers in total, with a vast majority of them (771.13 Mn) being wireless broadband subscribers. Out of India’s 1.15 Bn telecom users, around 67% are internet users.

In terms of market share here, Reliance Jio dominates with a 52.33% market share, almost twice that of Airtel at 27.39%. Vi finished third with a total market share of 15.35%, less than a third that of Jio’s.

The TRAI report on telecom data comes days after India concluded its first 5G spectrum auction, receiving 40 bids worth INR 1.5 Lakh Cr. 

Jio’s continued market dominance was evident at the spectrum auction, as the telco bought spectrum worth in excess of INR 84,000 Cr, with Airtel being a distant second having bought spectrum worth 43,000 Cr.