Reliance Jio has once again strengthened its position as the leading fibre-based broadband service provider in the country in a very close contest as per a new report from the telecom regulator. In addition to this, Bharti Airtel also managed to surpass the government-owned telco Bhartiya Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and secured the second position in the list of wired service providers.
Jio, Airtel Grow While BSNL Drops
According to a report from ET Telecom, the leading service provider in India, Reliance Jio witnessed an addition of 0.18 million subscribers in the month of December 2021 which took its overall user base count to around 4.6 million. Bharti Airtel, on the other hand, showed continuous growth as the telco added about 0.12 million new users which propelled its user base to about 4.2 million. However, things are not looking good for the state-owned telco BSNL as it lost about another 0.13 million users resulting in its overall user count dropping to 4.1 million. The telco dropped down to the third position in the list of fibre-based service providers. The subscriber data of the telcos was released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). A Japanese brokerage firm Nomura Research in its analysis of the data stated that Jio’s growth continued in the month of December in terms of fixed broadband while Airtel overtook BSNL to secure the No 2 spot. The downfall in BSNL’s user base clearly indicates the telco’s incompetent efforts against the private players. Talking about the market share of the telcos, ICICI securities informed that Jio witnessed the highest market share by securing 17.3% end-December. Airtel and BSNL on the other hand were able to get hold of 15.9% and 15.4% respectively. This is quite indicative of BSNL’s downfall as Jio took over the first spot only a few months ago from BSNL in November 2021. In addition to this, the report also revealed that Jio was also able to lead the telecom sector in India in the month of December 2021 and also added the maximum number of new users during the time period despite the significant tariff hikes imposed in November 2021.
