Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio has toppled the state-owned BSNL to become the country’s largest fixed-line service provider.
With its current subscriber base of 7.35 million, three-year-old Jio has left behind 22-year-old BSNL (7.13 million) to become India’s first-ever private service provider to gain the top position in the wireline segment, according to a Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) report published yesterday (Oct. 18).
The growth of private players in India’s fixed-line segment
The Indian telecom sector has witnessed the overall growth of private players over government firms BSNL and MTNL since Jio’s entry in 2016.
However, the story was different in the fixed-line segment. Till now, that is.
Reliance Jio aside, almost all private players gained fixed-line subscribers in August. BSNL and MTNL, on the other hand, lost 15,734 and 13,395 subscribers respectively, TRAI noted.
In terms of the telephone subscriber base, the industry witnessed a marginal increase from 1,173.66 million at the end of July to 1,175.08 million in August.