As Jio, Airtel, and Vi Face Customer Losses Following Tariff Hikes, BSNL Gains Ground

In July, major telecom operators like Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea experienced significant customer losses after increasing their mobile service prices. Meanwhile, government-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) added new subscribers, even as the overall telecom user base in India saw a slight decline.

Jio lost 750,000 customers, bringing its total to 475.76 million, while Airtel suffered the largest drop of 1.69 million, reducing its base to 387.32 million. Vi also lost 1.41 million customers, resulting in a user base of 215.88 million. In contrast, BSNL, which did not hike its tariffs, gained 2.93 million new users, raising its customer base to 88.51 million.

This shift caused market shares to adjust, with Jio’s share decreasing to 40.68%, Airtel’s to 33.12%, and Vi’s to 18.46%. Conversely, BSNL’s market share increased from 7.33% to 7.59%.

In the high-value 4G and 5G segment, Airtel was the only private operator to gain ground, adding 2.56 million users in July. Jio lost 760,000 4G/5G customers, while Vi’s 3G/4G base dropped by 1.1 million. Both Vi and BSNL have yet to offer 5G services, though BSNL recently launched 4G in select areas.

BSNL also saw a boost in active users, gaining 2.91 million to reach a total of 49.49 million, while Jio, Airtel, and Vi lost 210,000, 1.17 million, and 3.03 million active users, respectively.

The total telecom subscriber base in India slightly declined to 1,205.17 million in July from 1,205.64 million in June.

In the fixed-line sector, which grew by around 1% to 35.56 million, Jio led by adding over 480,000 new subscribers, followed by Airtel with 136,000. BSNL, however, lost 134,000 fixed-line customers. The broadband user base also grew, increasing to 946.19 million by the end of July from 940.75 million in June.