Mukesh Ambani’s JioFiber wired broadband service has added three lakh new customers during September 2020, the latest data from Trai suggests. Next to JioFiber is Bharti Airtel’s Xstream Fiber service that added just over 66,000 new users. State-run BSNL lost over 1.8 lakh existing customers during the same period. Just a few days ago, we reported that BSNL managed to add around 87,000 new broadband users in October. So it will be exciting to see how BSNL turned the tables in just a month. BSNL’s affordable broadband plans with 3.3TB FUP limit went official at the start of October, so that could be one of the reasons behind the major subscriber additions. Despite losing 1.8 lakh existing users, BSNL is still the leading wired broadband service provider with a market share of 38.55%.
JioFiber Now Has Over 1.5 Million Users: Trai Data
At the end of September 2020, the overall broadband subscriber base increased to 21.12 million from 20.47 million in August 2020. BSNL is leading the market with 38.55% share, followed by Bharti Airtel (21.99%), MTNL (15.10%), Reliance Jio (10.35%), Tata Tele (8.51%) and Vodafone Idea (2.52%). As you can see, PSUs account for 53.65% share, whereas the private operators secured 46.35% share. The Trai data further suggests the top five wired broadband service providers at the end of September 2020 are BSNL with 7.80 million customers, Bharti Airtel with 2.60 million users, Atria Convergence Technologies with 1.73 million users under its belt, Reliance Jio Infocomm with 1.52 million customers and Hathway with 1.05 million users. As for the top five wireless broadband services, Reliance Jio leads the list with 404.13 million customers. Bharti Airtel has 163.41 million wireless broadband users, Vodafone Idea has 119.84 million and BSNL ends the list with 17.03 million broadband users. JioFiber is adding new customers on a decent note, but the company’s goal of achieving 50 million subscribers is still a distant dream. BSNL, somehow, has to retain its existing subscribers, but the PSU is facing stiff competition from almost every ISP. To tackle the competition, BSNL launched a Rs 449 broadband plan with 30 Mbps speeds and 3.3TB FUP limit available across all the circles. We now need to wait for the Trai subscription data for October to see how BSNL performed after the introduction of affordable broadband plans.
