The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, or TRAI, has released the latest numbers for the telecom industry for January 2019.
And there is one big piece of positive news for Airtel: For the first time ever, Airtel has beaten Jio when it comes to adding new mobile broadband users.
In related news, BSNL has launched its VoLTE services in some selected cities in India.
Airtel Beats Jio In Mobile Broadband Growth – First Time Ever
At the end of December 2018, Airtel had 97.99 million mobile broadband users, which has increased to 107.96 million. Hence, within a month, Airtel was able to add 99.7 lakh new users.
Meanwhile, at the end of December 2018, Jio had 280.12 million users, which has now increased to 289.44 million. This means that Jio had added new users in this period, compared to 99.7 lakh new users added by Airtel.
Ever since Jio entered into the market in 2016, this is for the first time that Airtel has managed to beat Jio in the mobile broadband space.
Mobile broadband refers to broadband access via mobile devices such as dongles.
The State Of Telecom In January 2019: Overview
- For the 3rd time ever, total telecom users in India crossed 120 crore. The last time it happened was in May 2018, and before that, in July 2017
- Mobile users in India have now crossed the 118 crore mark, which increased by one crore compared to December
- Jio was the #1 player when it comes to adding new subscribers: 93 lakh new mobile customers joined Jio in January
- After losing customers in December, Airtel added 1 lakh new customers in January
- With 35.8 lakh customers, Vodafone-Idea is India’s #1 telecom operator as of January 31, 2019
- While Airtel added 29,900 new wired broadband users, BSNL lost 90,000 wired Vodafone users and added 6386 new wired broadband users. There are 54 crore broadband users in India, of which 52.1 crore are wireless broadband users. This total number of broadband users in India increased by 4.1% compared to December.
You can access the report by TRAI right here.
B SNL’s 4G VoLTE Services Start
After launching 4G across some selected cities, BSNL has also started offering VoLTE services.
Some users in Gujarat who are using 4G SIM received this message from BSNL with instructions to activate the service:
