Telecom Subscribers in India Increased by 2.9 Million in May, TRAI Says

The number of telephone subscribers in India increased by 2.92 million to 1,170.73 million at the end of May 2022, data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India showed on Tuesday. In urban areas, the number of subscribers increased by 0.8 percent to 647.81 million, whereas in rural areas it rose by 2.1 percent to 522.92 million, data showed. As on May 31, 2022, the private telecom service providers held 89.87 percent market share of the wireless subscribers whereas BSNL and MTNL, the two PSU service providers, had a market share of only 10.13 percent.

Bharti Airtel added 1.02 million wireless subscribers during the month, whereas Reliance Jio added around 3.1 million subscribers. On the contrary, Vodafone Idea lost 759,258 subscribers.

Notably, except for Assam, West Bengal, Kolkata, Kerala, Himachal Pradesh and Haryana service areas, all others have shown a growth rate in their wireless subscribers during the month of May.

During the month, 7.97 million subscribers submitted their requests for Mobile Number Portability (MNP). With this, the cumulative MNP requests so far since its inception increased from 705.54 million at the end of May 2022.

Intra-service area Mobile number portability (MNP) was implemented in 2010 and in the rest of the country in 2011 so that wireless telephone subscribers can retain their mobile numbers when they relocate from one service area to another.

Last month, it was reported that Jio gained 1.68 million mobile subscribers in April, cementing its lead in the market, while Bharti Airtel added 0.81 million users, according to TRAI data. Vodafone Idea lost about 15.7 lakh mobile subscribers during April 2022, according to monthly subscriber data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). The regulator's data revealed that India's total wireless subscribers count had increased marginally to 114.3 crore at the end of April.