Reliance Jio is strengthening itself in every category of telecom. Jio’s offers and schemes are wooing users and the result is visible in the figures. Jio has overtaken Bharti Airtel to become the second largest fixed line service provider in the country in February 2022. Fixed-line or wireline telecommunications refers to telephone and broadband Internet service, delivered via a cable network.
According to the Subscriber Report released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Tuesday, Reliance Jio’s wireline subscriber base has crossed 58.85 lakhs. In comparison, Airtel registered a subscriber base of more than 57.66 lakhs in February.
The report states that Reliance Jio added 2.44 lakh customers in February, which is the highest in wireline telephony. At the same time, Airtel added 91,243 new users and stood second in this segment. It was followed by Vodafone Idea, which added 24,948 customers. Quadrant added 18,622 and Tata Teleservices added 3,772 customers. Reliance Jio is now only behind BSNL, which has more than 75.76 lakh wireline customers.
BSNL and MTNL together account for 49.5 per cent in this segment. However, they lost 49,074 and 21,900 fixed line customers respectively. Significantly, the wireline subscriber base has grown significantly after the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Private telecom operators have benefited the most.
This is the reason that the market share of BSNL has come down from 34.64 per cent to 30.9 per cent since January 2021. The stake of MTNL has come down to 11.05 per cent in February 2022 from 14.65 per cent in January 2021. On the other hand, private players like Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel are steadily gaining market share.
Reliance Jio is the most aggressive in this segment. Its stake has increased from 14.7 per cent to 24 per cent between January 2021 and February 2022. To further strengthen the position in the segment, the company has waived entry fee and installation charges for new customers taking postpaid Jio Fiber connection. The company has also introduced a monthly plan for Jio Fiber postpaid customers. In this, access to 6 entertainment apps is available for Rs 100.
At the same time, Airtel has made some gains in this segment. Its share has gone up from 23.12 to 23.52 percent. Statistics show that the number of wireline subscribers in the country reached 24.5 million at the end of February 2022, from 20 million in January 2021.
