Reliance's Jio overtakes BSNL as top broadband service provider

As per the monthly telecom subscribers report released by the telecom regulator TRAI on Tuesday, Reliance Jio has overtaken state-run telecom company BSNL as a top service provider of fixed-line broadband services. Jio, who is relatively new in the telecom market, launched its fixed-line broadband services about two years ago in September 2019 and had 4.34 million customers in November 2021 and about 4.16 million in October. For about twenty years, the segment was dominated by state-run telecom.

As for BSNL, its customer base stood at 4.2 million in November, a significant decline from its 4.72 million in October. Meanwhile, another close competitor Bharti Airtel had a customer base of 4.08 million.

In September 2019, Jio started fresh, and BSNL had 8.69 million wired broadband customers that was reduced to less than half in November 2021.

Meanwhile, Bharti Airtel's subscriber base is also witnessing drastic growth of about 70 per cent from 2.41 million in September 2019 to 4.08 million in November 2021. If Airtel carries forth with the same growth pace, it is also likely to overtake BSNL soon.

"Top five service providers constituted 98.68 per cent market share of the total broadband subscribers at the end of November," TRAI said.

In November 2021, the total broadband subscriber base of Reliance Jio stood at 432.96 million, of Airtel's at 210.10 million, VIL's at 122.40 million, BSNL's at 23.62 million and that of Atria Convergence at 1.98 million.