India’s private telecom operators, including Reliance Jio Infocomm, have garnered 1.004 billion users as of July 2018, with Bharti Airtel continuing to top the pecking order.

Bharti Airtel had 344.88 million mobile subscribers as of July, followed by Vodafone India with 223.34 million users, while Idea Cellular came in third with 220.60 million users. RJio, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries, had 215.26 million users, according to data collated by Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI).

Market share

Airtel topped the charts with a 34.35 per cent market share, followed by Vodafone (22.24 per cent), Idea (21.97 per cent) and RJio (21.44 per cent).

Among service areas, UP (East) topped the charts with 86.74 million subscribers, according to COAI data.

“India is today at the cusp of digital revolution, buoyed by the Government’s Digital India initiative and other programmes. As the country prepares itself for next-gen technologies such as 5G, the role of the telecom sector with further evolve and advance. The Government and the industry is working in tandem to ensure last mile connectivity to every person, which in turn will open up a plethora of opportunities for everybody,” Rajan S Mathews, Director General at COAI, said.

The COAI numbers does not include monthly subscriber figures of BSNL, MTNL, Tata and RCom, while RJio figures were sourced from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

Separately on August 31, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular officially announced their merger creating the largest mobile operator in the country, overtaking Bharti Airtel, with a subscriber base of more than 408 million.

rajesh.kurup@thehindu.co.in

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