The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)’s latest data released Friday showed that while other telcos lost subscribers in a big way, Reliance Jio added 3.5 million subscribers as of May 2021.

Bharti Airtel lost 4.6 million subscribers, followed by Vi at 4.28 million and State-owned BSNL 0.88 million subscribers.

However, Reliance Jio’s monthly growth rate was at 0.83 per cent, which is worth noting as it was the only telecom operator that saw subscriber additions.

TRAI’s data revealed that Reliance Jio’s wireless subscriber market share increased from 36.15 percent at the end of April to 36.64 percent at the end of May.

BSNL’s wireless subscriber market share stood at 9.89 percent with a loss of 0.88 million subscribers.

The top five wireless broadband service providers for the month of May 2021 were Reliance Jio with 431.23 million subscribers, Bharti Airtel with 189.49 million subscribers, Vi with 119.63mn subscribers, BSNL with 16.44mn subscribers, and Tikona with 0.32mn subscribers.

In the wired broadband segment, the top five service providers were BSNL, which ruled with 6.03 million subscribers. Bharti Airtel is on second spot with 3.24 million subscribers. Reliance Jio with 3 million subscribers, Atria Convergence Technologies with 1.87 million subscribers and Hathway with 1.07 million subscribers formed the remainder of the pecking order.

Meanwhile, the number of telephone subscribers in India decreased from 1,203.47 million at the end of April-21 to 1,198.50 million at the end of May-21, thereby showing a monthly decline rate of 0.41 percent.

Urban telephone subscriptions decreased from 664.34 million at the end of April-21 to 661.18 million at the end of May-21 and the rural subscription also decreased from 539.14 million to 537.32 million during the same period.

The monthly decline rates of urban and rural telephone subscription were 0.47 percent and 0.34 percent, respectively during the month of May-21.

Total wireless subscribers decreased from 1,183.11 million at the end of April- 21 to 1,176.84 million at the end of May-21, thereby registering a monthly decline rate of 0.53 percent.

Wireless subscription in urban areas decreased from 645.62 million at the end of April-21 to 641.48 million at the end of May-21 and wireless subscription in rural areas also decreased from 537.49 million to 535.36 million during the same period. Monthly decline rates of urban and rural wireless subscription were 0.64 percent and 0.40 percent, respectively.

As on May 31, 2021, the private access service providers held 89.83 percent market share of the wireless subscribers whereas BSNL and MTNL, the two State-controlled service providers, had a market share of only 10.17 percent.