It would not be an exaggeration to call the government-owned telecom company BSNL the ‘Mahabali’ of the telecom industry. Now other big players in the telecom industry have failed in the face of this ‘Mahabali’. The latest example of this can be seen in the latest TRAI data. The month of July has seen a drop in customers of Jio, Airtel and Vodafone Idea. At the same time, there has been an increase in the number of customers of the government-owned telecom company BSNL. In fact, in the month of July, private telecom companies had increased their tariffs. The effect of this was manifested in the form of a decline in customers. Let us also tell you what kind of numbers have been seen from the telecom regulator.
How much did rates increase in July?
The effect of the mobile service tariff hike was clearly visible in July. The number of customers of Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea has declined. This resulted in a decline in the total number of telecom subscribers in the country. Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea increased their mobile service tariffs by 10 to 27 per cent in the first week of July. Airtel and Vodafone Idea have more than doubled their entry-level mobile tariffs to Rs 199 in the last two to three years. Their validity is 28 days.
BSNL won
According to the monthly customer report of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) released on Friday, the country’s largest state-owned telecom company Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) was the only company to add new customers last month and in terms of net new customer addition it remained at the forefront of the market. According to the report, BSNL added over 29.4 lakh mobile customers in July. The main reason is that BSNL is the cheapest when compared to the tariffs of other telecom companies in the country. A lot of improvements have been seen in BSNL’s network. At the same time, work on the 4G network is progressing at a good pace.
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loss for big business
On the other hand, Bharti Airtel lost 16.9 lakh mobile customers, which is the highest compared to other companies. Vodafone Idea (Vi) and Reliance Jio lost 14.1 lakh and 7.58 lakh mobile customers respectively. Overall, the telecom subscriber base in the country declined marginally to 120 crore (51.7 lakh) in July. It was 120 crore (56.4 lakh) in June. Following the increase in tariffs for mobile services, a decline in mobile subscriber base was recorded in the telecom circles of Northeast, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Mumbai, Kolkata, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Bihar, West Bengal, Eastern Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Andhra Pradesh.
Private companies benefit from fixed lines
The number of subscribers in the fixed-line and cable segment rose by nearly one per cent in July to 3 crore and 55.6 lakh. It was 3 crore (51.1 lakh) in June. Reliance Jio led the fixed-line segment by adding over 4.80 lakh new customers. Bharti Airtel added over 1.36 lakh new customers, VMIPL added 12,413, Vodafone Idea added 11,375, Tata Teleservices added 3,971 and Quadrant added 12 new fixed-line customers.
BSNL suffered the biggest loss in this segment. The government-owned company lost 1.34 lakh fixed-line customers and its sister company lost 56,454 customers. The broadband subscriber base in the country increased to 94 crore (61.9 lakh) in July. In June, it was 94 crore (7.5 lakh). The contribution of the top five companies to the total broadband connections in the country is 98.42 per cent.
