Analysts noted that Reliance Jio's mobile user growth outpaced Bharti Airtel's in July, indicating that the telecom market leader had cornered majority of Vodafone Idea's (Vi) anxious users in addition to faster growth in rural markets.
According to the most recent figures compiled by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), Jio added 39 lakh mobile users in July whereas Airtel only had 15 lakh user additions, which were hampered in part by Airtel's decision to increase its base prepaid rates by wide margins, according to a report by ET.
At the end of July, Vi had more than 22 crore mobile users, down by about 13 lakh users from the previous month. According to Trai data, Jio's mobile subscriber base increased to more than 44 crore users in July, while Airtel's increased to 37 crore users in the country.
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The data showed that, as of the end of July, India's mobile customer base had increased by 0.23 per cent to around 110 crores due to a combination of user gains from Jio and Airtel and user losses from Vi. The overall wireless tele-density also slightly increased from 82.25 per cent in June to 82.38 per cent in July.
Vodafone Idea is in a crisis due to its inability to pay a mounting debt of Rs 1.8 lakh crores. This has led to the company's users losing trust and confidence in the firm, thereby, leading them to choose other telecom operators over it. Vi's shares were down by nearly 3 percent in the morning trade on September 28 after the Trai data came out.
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