Tariff Hike Shock: Jio, Airtel, and Vi Lose Customers While BSNL Thrives in July

In July, the rise in mobile phone service prices led to noticeable losses for Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea, resulting in a decline in the overall number of telecom subscribers in India. These companies increased their mobile service plan rates by 10-27% in the first week of July.

Airtel and Vodafone Idea have raised their entry-level mobile rates to ₹199 over the past 2-3 years, which now includes 28 days of validity.

However, state-run BSNL was the only telecom provider to gain new subscribers, adding over 2.94 million mobile customers in July. According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s monthly report, Bharti Airtel lost the most subscribers, with a drop of 1.69 million. Vodafone Idea lost 1.41 million subscribers, while Reliance Jio lost 758,000.

Overall, the total number of telecom subscribers in India fell slightly from 1,205.64 million in June to 1,205.17 million in July. Several regions, including the North East, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and Tamil Nadu, saw a decline in mobile customers following the price hike.

In the fixed-line segment, the total connections increased by about 1% to 35.56 million in July. Reliance Jio led this segment with over 480,000 new subscribers, followed by Bharti Airtel with more than 136,000. BSNL, on the other hand, lost 134,000 fixed-line customers.

The number of broadband customers also rose, reaching 946.19 million by the end of July, up from 940.75 million in June. Reliance Jio had the most broadband customers, with 488.63 million, followed by Airtel with 284.03 million, and Vodafone Idea with 126.72 million.

In machine-to-machine cellular mobile connections, Bharti Airtel led with 28.46 million subscribers, capturing 53.02% of the market share, followed by Vodafone Idea, Reliance Jio, and BSNL.