Airtel topples Jio in wired telecom segment!

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Sunil Mittal-led private telecom, Bharti Airtel, has topped the charts in India’s telecom industry in September 2023. The Delhi-based telecom has added highest number of new wireline subscribers in the month under consideration. For a long time, billionaire, Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio had gained highest number of wireless subscribers on monthly basis. But, Airtel by dialling its wired network solutions the ‘Airtel Fiber’ brand, has changed this trend to leave its rival behind. The Mittal Group telecom added 1.49 lakh subscribers in the relevant segment which was 16 per cent higher than its rival Jio. The latter added 1.28 lakh new wired subscribers in the concerned month.

Airtel’s leap over Jio in the month of September 2023 has helped the telecom to increase its market share in the wired segment to 25 per cent. But still, Jio continued to reign over India’s telecom industry with 33 per cent market share in this particular segment.

On the other hand, Aditya Birla Group telecom, Vodafone India, could not gain even one wired subscriber in September 2023. Rather, the private telecom lost few wired subscribers. State owned telecoms BSNL and MTNL also lost 81,001 and 9,823 subscribers, respectively. VI’s market share in the wired segment shrunk to mere two per cent by September 30, 2023. While, public telecoms’ market share now stands at 27 per cent. Private telecoms’ market share has flared up to 72 per cent. Slowly slowly, state owned telecoms are loosing market share to private peers not only in the wired segment but also in the wireless.

Talking about wireless segment, Airtel ranked second after Jio in terms of grabbing subscribers in September 2023. The Ambani Group telecom gained 34.75 lakh new subscribers. While, the Mittal Group telecom added 13.20 lakh new wireless subscribers. Vodafone Idea lost 7.49 lakh customers in the wireless segment. Market share of private telecoms flared up to 91 per cent while that of state owned telecoms fell to 8.31 per cent in this particular segment.

Overall, the telecom industry added 17.16 lakh new wireless and 2.01 lakh new wired subscribers in September. Currently, the total number of subscribers stand at 118 crore.