For The First Time, Airtel Beats Jio In Mobile Broadband Growth; BSNL’s VoLTE Services Begin

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India or TRAI has released the latest numbers for the telecom industry, for the month of January 2019.

And there is one big positive news for Airtel: For the first time ever, Airtel has beaten Jio, when it comes to adding new mobile broadband users.

Besides, in related news, it has been revealed that BSNL has launched its VoLTE services in some selected cities in India.

Airtel Beats Jio In Mobile Broadband Growth – First Time Ever

At the end of December, 2018, Airtel had 97.99 million mobile broadband users, which has now increased to 107.96 million users. Hence, within a month, Airtel was able to add 99.7 lakh new users.

Meanwhile at the end of December 2018, Jio had 280.12 million users, which has now increased to 289.44 million users. This means that Jio was able to add 93.2 lakh new users in this period, compared to 99.7 lakh new users added by Airtel.

Ever since Jio entered into the market in 2016, this is for the first time that Airtel has managed to beat Jio in the mobile broadband space.

Mobile broadband refers to broadband access via mobile devices such as dongles.

State Of Telecom In January, 2019: Overview

Here are some of the highlights from the report:

• For the 3rd time ever, total telecom users in India crossed 120 crore mark. Last time it happened was in May, 2018, and before that in July 2017
• Mobile users in India have now crossed 118 crore mark, which increased by 1 crore compared to December
• Jio was the #1 player when it comes to adding new subscribers: 93 lakh new mobile customers joined Jio in January
• After losing customers in December, Airtel added 1 lakh new customers in January
• With 35.8 lakh customers, Vodafone-Idea is India’s #1 telecom operator as of January 31, 2019
• While Airtel added 29,900 new wired-broadband connections, BSNL lost 90,000 wired-broadband users. Vodafone added 6386 new wired-broadband users.
• There are a total of 54 crore broadband users in India, out of which 52.1 crore are wireless broadband users. This total number of broadband users in India increased by 4.1%, compared to December

You can access the report by TRAI right here.

BSNL’s 4G VoLTE Services Start

After launching 4G across some selected cities, BSNL has now started offering VoLTE services as well.

Some users in Gujarat who are using 4G SIM received this message from BSNL, with instructions to activate the service:

Image Source

As of now, BSNL will offer VoLTE services in Gandhidham and Anjar districts.

We will keep you updated, as more details come in.