Jio and Airtel collectively add almost 7.5 million active users in March: TRAI

In the month of March, Reliance Jio increased its active user base by 4.95 million. Whereas, 2.47 million new active customers joined Bharti Airtel.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released the Indian carriers' monthly performance information for March 2023.

According to the data, Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel built on almost 7.5 million active users in the month of March. These are substantial sums. During the same period, active customers shifted away from both Vodafone Idea(Vi), and BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited) . For the previous few years, the sector has been following the same pattern. The telco that suffered the most decline in active subscribers was Vi.

In the month of March, Reliance Jio increased its active user base by 4.95 million, according to TRAI data. With this, Jio's active subscriber base surpassed the 400 million milestone and now stands at 402.57 million. Jio has 430.23 million total customers by the end of March 2023, which means 93.57% of them counted as active in the month.

Whereas, 2.47 million new active customers joined Bharti Airtel. When compared to its entire subscriber base of 370.91 million, Airtel had 369.56 million active users throughout the month, which mean that approximately 99.63% of the subscribers were engaged.

On the other hand, the number of active subscribers of Vi decreased by 0.46 million dropping from 208.34 million in February to 207.88 million in March. With 236.75 million total subscribers, the telecom operator had 87.81% of its subscriber bas actively using the service each month.

Similarly the number of active subscribers of the state-owned telecom company BSNL, decreased by 0.26 million, to 53.66 million. With 103.68 million subscribers in total by the end of March 2023, 51.76% users of BSNL's service were recorded active during that time.

The company with the most active subscribers is Reliance Jio. Active customers are crucial as the revenue generated comes from the money paid for the services. The number as of now stands at 33.01 million higher active users on Jio as compared to Airtel. It won't be wrong to say that Vi's loss has been Jio and Airtel's gain. Both Jio and Airtel are rapidly introducing their 5G services network in various cities and have in total covered over 3000 cities so far. Vi on the other hand hasn't introduced its 5G services yet and is finding it difficult to even clear its dues. As a result, people prefer switching their network to a telco that is offering 5G where they either pick Jio or Airtel .