New Delhi: The trend of people porting their mobile service connection to BSNL continues. The state-owned telecom company has recorded an increase in its subscriber base for the third consecutive month. Meanwhile, private companies like Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone-Idea continue to lose subscribers.
People started switching to BSNL after Jio, Airtel, and Vodafone-Idea increased call and internet recharge rates in July. These private brands must have calculated that the trend of people porting their SIM cards and switching to BSNL is temporary. However, the figures for September that came out now showed that the expectation was wrong.
According to data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), BSNL added eight lakh (8,49,206) new mobile subscribers in September 2024. It had added 29.4 lakh subscribers in July and 25 lakh in August. With this, BSNL's total subscriber base crossed nine crore. This also increased its market share to 7.98 per cent.
Meanwhile, Jio, Airtel and Vodafone-Idea networks lost a total of 1 crore subscribers in September. Of this, Jio lost 79.7 lakh. Airtel lost 14 lakh, and Vodafone-Idea lost 15 lakh.