India’s largest mobile operator Reliance Jio added 32.4 lakh users in August, and its wireless subscriber tally topped 44.57 crore, according to data released by telecom regulator Trai. Bharti Airtel gained 12.17 lakh wireless subscribers in August, while cash-strapped Vodafone Idea lost 49,782 users.

The mobile subscriber count of Bharti Airtel rose to 37.64 crore in August. Vodafone Idea (Vi), on the other hand, saw its wireless subscriber numbers dip to 22.82 crore during the month.

Reliance Jio cemented its position as India’s largest mobile operator, adding 32.45 lakh users in August and its wireless subscriber base swelled to over 44.57 crore, according to monthly telecom subscription data released by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), PTI reported from New Delhi.

Jio’s net adds for August were, however, lower than 39 lakh additions in July.

“In August, 12.67 million subscribers submitted their requests for Mobile Number Portability (MNP),” Trai said.

With this, the cumulative requests (since implementation of MNP) increased to 87.7 crore at the end of August, from 86.4 crore in July-end.

The total broadband subscribers increased to 87.6 crore in August, a month-on-month growth of 0.96 per cent.

Top five service providers constituted 98.35 per cent market share of the total broadband subscribers in India.

These service providers included Reliance Jio Infocomm (45.5 crore), Bharti Airtel (25.3 crore), Vodafone Idea (12.5 crore), and state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (2.5 crore).

Overall, India’s total wireless subscriber base expanded marginally to 114.8 crore as on August. The monthly growth rate of urban and rural wireless subscription was 0.13 per cent and 0.26 per cent, respectively.

“Wireless subscription in urban areas increased from 628.55 million at the end of July to 629.39 million at the end of August and wireless subscription in rural areas also increased from 517.69 million to 519.04 million during the same period,” it said.

Wireline subscribers increased to over 3 crore at the end of August, on the back of a marginal 0.56 per cent growth.

Jio added 1.78 lakh wireline subscribers in August, while the net adds of Bharti Airtel stood at 1.16 lakh during the same period.