Mobile user base dropped significantly for the third consecutive month, falling 0.5 million in November.

Mobile user base dropped significantly for the third consecutive month, falling 0.5 million in November.

For the first time in six months, the overall mobile subscriber base decreased in September. According to figures from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, the number of mobile subscribers in India decreased by 0.52 million in November, extending a three-month trend of decline (Trai). At the end of November, there were 1.14 billion mobile users worldwide, up from 1.1435 billion in October.

The overall number of mobile users for October was further amended by Trai to account for a further loss of 73,198 subscribers caused by the withdrawal of BSNL virtual network operators (VNO) subscribers in the Tamil Nadu region.

September marked the first month in the past six months in which the total number of mobile subscribers experienced a month-over-month decline. Users in rural areas, where the subscription declined by 2 million to 516.45 million, accounting for the majority of the churn in November. To 626.6 million, however, the urban subscriber base increased by 1.4 million.

According to analysts, the SIM card consolidation brought on by inflationary pressures is mostly to blame for the decline in the customer base. SIM card consolidation describes a decrease in mobile network connections made by users as a result of factors including pricing affordability.

According to Trai data, all other service areas—with the exception of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Kolkata, Odisha, Assam, Bihar, North East, Haryana, and Kerala—showed a fall rate in their wireless customers during the month.

Vodafone Idea, which lost 1.83 million users in the month, was mostly responsible for the decline in the total subscriber base. The struggling telecom provider lost 3.51 million users in October. For the past 20 months, the business has been losing customers.

In contrast, Reliance Jio, the Mukesh Ambani-led company, increased its subscriber base by 1.4 million from 700,000 in September, further solidifying its dominance in the Indian telecom industry. Jio added new customers at a slower rate in comparison to August when the company added 3.2 million subscribers.

2.94 million new members, including 400,000 in July and June, had joined. Reliance Jio, India’s largest telecom provider by market share, has led the growth of wireless subscribers for eight consecutive months. In comparison to rival Bharti Airtel, which added 1.06 million new customers in November, the telecom provider added 1.43 million net new wireless subscribers.

The improvement in wireless user growth for Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio in November over the last month can be attributable to Vodafone Idea’s declining market share. Reliance Jio increased its market share of wireless users from 36.85% in October to 36.99% as of November’s conclusion. 422.8 million more people now have wireless service through the corporation. In contrast, Vodafone Idea’s market share in the wireless customer category decreased to 21.33% from 21.48% in October, while Bharti Airtel’s market share increased to 32.03% from 31.92% in that month.

At the end of November, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea had 366.08 million and 243.79 million wireless users, respectively. For the thirteenth month in a row, Bharti Airtel increased its customer base. For the eleventh month in a row, state-owned BSNL lost wireless subscribers. The corporation lost 1.18 million wireless members in November, the most in the previous 11 months. As of the end of November, BSNL has 107.51 million total subscribers.

Jio is still in the lead in the wireline market. Bharti Airtel came in second with 0.13 million new subscribers, followed by the operator with 0.21 million. At the end of November, Jio had 8.1 million total wireline subscribers, compared to Airtel’s 6.6 million.

In the wireline market, BSNL keeps losing customers. The corporation lost 3,021 users in November, bringing its total subscriber base to 7.09 million. Trai reports that 12.02 million users requested mobile number portability during the month of November (MNP). The regulator noted that since the implementation of MNP, “the cumulative MNP requests grew from 759.92 million over the course of October 22 to 771.94 million over the course of November 22.”

In India, there were 4.53 million fewer active mobile subscribers overall in November after three straight months of growth. Based on the peak visitor location register, which reflects the number of active subscribers and also takes into account those who are roaming on a mobile operator’s network, 1.012 billion out of a total of 1.143 billion wireless customers were active. This is an 88.56% participation rate.

Reliance Jio’s active subscribers decreased by around 3 million during the month, reaching 388 million. The organization’s visitor location registration decreased from 92.79% in October to 91.77%. Among the telecom companies, Bharti Airtel maintained its lead with a visitor location register subscriber rate of 98.06%. As of the end of November, the company’s active subscriber base totalled 358.98 million, an increase of 0.96 million.

In November, Vodafone Idea’s active subscribers decreased for the eighth consecutive month. In November, the number of active subscribers for the corporation dropped by nearly 2 million to 209.7 million. In November, the number of wireless broadband customers in the nation increased by 3.37 million, bringing the total to 792.47 million.

The majority of 4G network users are also wireless broadband users. Bharti Airtel’s customer count reached 225 million in November after adding 2.15 million new wireless broadband subscribers. Vodafone Idea’s subscriber base increased by 0.11 million wireless broadband users in November, bringing it to 123.47 million.

edited and proofread by nikita sharma