Jio slows down as Airtel and BSNL gain ground in February 2025

Bharti Airtel, India’s second-largest telecom provider, unexpectedly overtook Reliance Jio in February 2025 in terms of the number of active wireless users. The data was revealed in the monthly performance indicator report published by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

According to the report, Airtel added 1.44 million new active subscribers in February, bringing its total active user base to 388.18 million. In comparison, Reliance Jio, despite having a larger overall active base of 445.97 million users, added only 0.38 million new active subscribers during the same period.

Vodafone Idea (Vi) continued to experience a decline in its active user base, losing 0.44 million subscribers over the month. Vi’s total number of active users stood at 175.39 million. Meanwhile, BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited) saw an encouraging increase, adding 2.02 million active users to reach a total of 58.38 million. Once again, Vodafone Idea was the only major telecom operator to report a loss in active customers, a trend that was also observed in January 2025.

Throughout the month, Airtel and BSNL recorded stronger growth in active subscribers compared to Jio. Jio’s slower pace of customer additions may be attributed to recent price hikes. The figures for the coming months will be closely watched to see if this trend continues. Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) is scheduled to announce its Q4 FY25 and full-year results on 25 April 2025.

Total market share

Despite the recent slowdown in active user growth, Reliance Jio continues to lead the market in overall wireless service share. As of February 2025, Jio held a market share of 40.52%, followed by Airtel at 33.67%. Vodafone Idea and BSNL accounted for 17.84% and 7.89% of the market, respectively.

In terms of overall wireless subscriber additions, Reliance Jio added 1.7 million users to its base, while Airtel attracted 1.59 million new users. Vodafone Idea registered a marginal increase of just 20,720 users, whereas BSNL saw a net decline of approximately 0.56 million subscribers.The total number of wireless users stood at 467.59 million for Reliance Jio and 388.18 million for Bharti Airtel.

Growth in mobile connections and 5G FWA users in February

In February, the total number of mobile phone connections in India increased by 2.76 million, marking a growth of 0.24%.

By the end of January, the number of 5G Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) users in the country had reached 6.27 million, a 9.7% rise from 5.72 million users the previous month. Of these, Reliance Jio accounted for 5.23 million users, representing 83.5% of the total, while the remainder were using Airtel’s services.

Additionally, data from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) showed that 12.06 million subscribers submitted requests for Mobile Number Portability (MNP) in February. This marked a decline from 14.14 million requests in January and 13.85 million in December.