Gujarat sees positive growth of mobile subscribers in September: TRAI

Jio gained
3.62 lakh users, BSNL added over 5k subscribers, Voda Idea, Airtel lose over
3.39 lakh users in Sep in Gujarat

After
several months, Gujarat saw positive growth in total telecom subscription
numbers in September 2019. The telecom regulatory, Telecom Regulatory Authority
of India (Trai), released mobile subscription numbers of September 2019 on
Tuesday.

The report
reveals in Gujarat, the total mobile connections have gone up by 29,129, thanks
to Reliance Jio and BSNL. The total mobile subscription has increased to 6.87
crore users in Gujarat circle.

During the
period, Jio added 3.60 lakh users and BSNL posted growth of over 5,700 users in
the circle. After completing three years of operation in India, including
Gujarat, Jio has over 32% of subscription base, with over 2.21 crore mobile
connections in Gujarat. Within three years, Jio has become second largest operator
in the circle.

The largest
telecom operator, Vodafone Idea has been witnessed fall consistently for past
over six months. By end of September 2019, Vodafone Idea lost 2.71 lakh users,
followed by loss of over 67,000 users by Bharti Airtel in Gujarat.

Nationally
too, Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel lost over 49 lakh users in September this
year, while Reliance Jio added 69.83 lakh new users to its network, as per data
from sectoral regulator TRAI.

The total
wireless subscribers (GSM, CDMA and LTE) increased to 117.37 crore at the end
of September 2019 from from 117.1 crore at the end of August, a monthly growth
of 0.23%, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said.

Wireless
subscription in urban areas declined to 65.91 crore at the end of September,
while that in rural areas increased to 51.45 crore, it added. As per the data,
Bharti Airtel lost 23.8 lakh users in September to take its total user base to
32.55 crore. Similarly, Vodafone Idea lost 25.7 lakh users in the month to take
its total user base to 37.24 crore.

However,
Reliance Jio added 69.83 lakh users in September, taking its total user base to
35.52 crore. As on September 30, 2019, Vodafone Idea had a subscriber market
share of 31.73%, Reliance Jio had a market share of 30.26%, and Bharti Airtel
of 27.74%.

State-run
MTNL saw 8,717 users move out (33.93 lakh user base), while BSNL added 7.37
lakh users to take its total base to 11.69 crore. The wireless teledensity in
India increased from 88.77 at the end of August to 88.90 at the end of
September, TRAI said.