Jio subscriber base increases to 28 cr, total wireless users rose to 117 cr

Reliance Jio continued to increase its subscriber base in December as other major telecom operators Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel lost users during the period, data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) showed on Wednesday. Reliance Jio added 85.6 lakh subscribers during the month under review, taking its total subscriber base to 28.01 crores.

"Total wireless subscribers (GSM, CDMA and LTE) increased from 1,171.76 million (117.17 crores) at the end of November 2018 to 1,176.00 million (117.6 crores) at the end of December 2018, thereby registering a monthly growth rate of 0.36 per cent," TRAI said in a statement. Vodafone Idea, the largest telecom operator in terms of subscribers, lost around 23.32 lakh subscriptions and its base by December-end stood at 41.87 crores.

The total subscriber base of Airtel was 34.03 crore, down 15.01 lakh from November, the data showed. On region-wise subscription trend, TRAI said that "during the month of December 2018, all service areas except the northeast, showed positive monthly growth in their wireless subscribers".