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India’s total telecom user base increased marginally to 1,192.03 million in January 2025 from 1,189.92 million in December 2024, reflecting a monthly growth of 0.18%, according to the latest report by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).
Airtel Leads In New Subscriber Additions
Bharti Airtel led the growth across both mobile and wireline segments.
The telecom operator added 1.6 million mobile users and 117,000 wireline subscribers in January, outpacing its competitors.
Trai Omits Broadband Data Due To Incomplete Submissions
For the second month in a row, Trai did not release updated broadband subscriber figures.
The report cited Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel’s failure to submit data in the prescribed format for December 2024 and January 2025.
5G Fixed Wireless Access Reclassified As Wireless
In January’s report, Trai reclassified 5G Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) as a wireless service.
This change resulted in Reliance Jio’s wireline subscriber base dropping by over 4.3 million, marking the largest decline in the segment.
Currently, only Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel offer 5G FWA services.
Jio leads the market with 48.44 lakh subscribers, while Airtel follows with 8.72 lakh.
Reliance Jio Dominates Mobile Market
Reliance Jio retained its position as the top mobile service provider with 465 million subscribers.
Airtel followed with 386.9 million users.
Vodafone Idea (Vi) continued to lose customers, shedding over 1.3 million mobile subscribers in January.
State-run BSNL and MTNL also lost 369,000 and 2,617 subscribers, respectively.
Wireline Segment Sees Mixed Performance
In the wireline segment, several operators lost subscribers. BSNL led the losses with 39,953 users dropping off, followed by MTNL (9,904), Quadrant (4,741), Vodafone Idea (3,447), and STPL (1,690).
In the absence of updated broadband data, Trai published November 2024 figures.
These showed Reliance Jio leading with 46.5 crore wireless broadband and 1.14 crore wireline connections.
Airtel followed with 28 crore wireless broadband and 8.55 crore wireline connections.
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