All telcos lost subscribers in 2019 except Reliance Jio, BSNL

Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) were the only telecom operators to have registered a year-on-year (y-o-y) growth in subscriber base in 2019, said Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) in its yearly performance indicator report.

The Mukesh Ambani-led telecom major added 90.9 million customers in 2019, taking the total to 371.1 million at the end of December, while BSNL recorded a growth of 1.5% y-o-y at 127.7 million. Currently, Reliance Jio is the largest telco by market share.

Vodafone Idea Ltd (Vi) lost the highest number of subscribers followed by Tata Teleservices Ltd and Bharti Airtel Ltd. Vodafone Idea’s subscriber base declined by 20.6% y-o-y to 333 million in 2019, while that of Airtel was down 3.7% at 331.6 million.