According to the Telecom Subscription Data as of February 2020 press release by TRAI, Sunil Mittal-led Bharti Airtel has onboarded 0.92 million new users to the network and become the second largest telecom operator of India.
Bharti Airtel has included 0.85 million subscribers in February 2020, whereas Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio included 6.25 million, agreeing to the information shared by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Monday. The TRAI information also says that state-operated telecom Bharat Sanchar Nagar Limited (BSNL) included over 0.44 million new subscribers and the count to the total subscriber base is at 119 million.
The merged telecom operator Vodafone Idea Limited continues to lost 3.47 million subscribers and the total subscriber base now counting to 325.5 million.
As per the TRAI data for Feb 20202, Mukesh Ambani-led telecom operator Reliance Jio is leading the Indian telecom subscriber base with 382.8 million, followed by Sunil Mittal-led telecom operator Bharti Airtel gained the second position with a subscriber base of 329.1 million. The regulator, in its statement, said the total wireless subscribers (2G, 3G & 4G) increased from 1,156.44 million at the end of Jan-20 to 1,160.59 million at the end of Feb-20, thereby registering a monthly increase rate of 0.36%.
As at the end of February 2020, the private telecom service providers holding 89.39% market share of the wireless subscribers whereas BSNL and MTNL, the two PSU (Public Sector Undertaking) telecom service providers, holding a market share of 10.61%.
Active Wireless Subscribers
Out of the total wireless subscribers (1,160.59 million), 986.82 million wireless subscribers were active on the date of peak VLR in the month of Feb-20. The proportion of active wireless subscribers was approximately 85.03% of the total wireless subscriber base.
Bharti Airtel has the maximum proportion (95.55%) of its active wireless subscribers (VLR) as against its total wireless subscribers (HLR) on the date of peak VLR in the month of Feb-20 and MTNL has the minimum proportion of VLR (26.81%) of its HLR during the same period.
Mobile Number Portability (MNP)
Intra-service area Mobile number portability (MNP) was implemented first in the Haryana service area w.e.f. 25.11.2010 and in the rest of the country w.e.f. 20.01.2011. InterService Area MNP has been implemented in the country w.e.f. 03.07.2015. Now, the wireless telephone subscribers can retain their mobile numbers when they relocate from one service provider to another.
As per the TRAI’s data of February 2020, 6.18 million requests received for MNP.
The cumulative MNP requests increased from 475.41 million at the end of Jan-20 to 481.59 million at the end of Feb-20, since the implementation of MNP.
