Airtel Continues to Gain Most Subscribers for 5th Straight Month

In latest data released by TRAI on Thursday, Airtel once again surged on ahead of its competition in terms of customers gained over a month. Second only to Jio, this is the 5th month in a row that Airtel has gained the most customers. The data carries worrying signs for Vodafone Idea, who continued to lose subscribers.

The Numbers for Airtel

As per TRAI, the Sunil Mittal-led operator gained 4.05 million subscribers over the month of December. This is in sharp contrast with Reliance Jio and Vi. The former gained just half a million new customers while Vodafone Idea continue to leak customers at an alarming rate, losing almost 6 million subscribers in December alone.

Bharti Airtel is the second largest telecom operator in the country. A market base of 338 million subscribers is second only to Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio Infocomm, who have a 410 million-strong customer base.

Even in November, the  added around 4.4 million subscribers to their base. In the same time, Jio managed to add less than half of that at 1.9 million subscribers. Vodafone Idea, however, lost nearly 3 million of their customers.

It remains interesting that the overall customer base for the telecoms declined in December.

Bharti Airtel have a lot of momentum at the moment. Reliance Jio, while still the market leader with 35% of the market share, must start to look over their shoulders as a resurgent Airtel continues to steam ahead. Voda-Idea, however, continue to lose ground to its opponents.