India’s telecom subscriber base dips marginally to 121 crore: TRAI

Only three operators -- Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and state-run BSNL -- reported subscriber additions in the month.

India’s telecom base suffers a marginal dip. (Pradeep gaur/mint)

India's telecom subscriber base suffered a marginal dip by 1.3 lakh to 121.07 crore in July, as per data published by regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Thursday.

Only three operators -- Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and state-run BSNL -- reported subscriber additions in the month, while eight other operators including Idea Cellular and Vodafone, saw a decline.

"The number of telephone subscribers in India slightly declined from 1,210.84 million at the end of June 2017 to 1,210.71 million at the end of July 2017," the TRAI said in its monthly subscribers report.

Total mobile subscriber base dipped to 118.67 crore at the end of July from 118.68 crore at the end of June. The landline or fixed line customer base declined to 2.39 crore from 2.4 crore.

Jio led the market with net addition of over 52 lakh mobile customers in July. It was followed by Bharti Airtel (6 lakh new customers) and BSNL (3.91 lakh).

Idea was the biggest loser in July. The company lost 23 lakh customers.

Tata Teleservices lost over 16 lakh customers, followed by Vodafone (13.89 lakh), Aircel (3.91 lakh), Telenor (2.75 lakh), Sistema Shyam (2.06 lakh) and MTNL (4,706 customers).