Jio and Airtel lost subscribers in July after tariff hike, BSNL records growth

• BSNL recorded a huge increase in its subscriber base in July 2024.
• Reliance Jio, Airtel and Vi have all reported a significant decline in their subscriber base.
• This comes after the tariff hike in July 2024, which increased tariffs by up to 25%.

In a big boost to state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), the telco has reported a huge 2.93 million increase in subscribers in July 2024, while other telecom operators such as Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vi reported a substantial decline in their subscriber base.

After a long time, the month of July recorded a net decline in the Indian telecom user base. In July, there was a decline of 0.92 million users, down from an increase of 1.57 million users in June 2024. This takes the total subscriber base from 1.171 billion in June 2024 to 1.169 billion in July 2024.

As we mentioned earlier, the effect of the price hike announced by the private telcos was visible in July, with all three telcos losing subscribers in huge numbers, while BSNL benefitted. We expect there to be a second wave of decline for these telcos in August as well.


Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio had announced a tariff hike, which was followed by Airtel and Vi. The telcos had announced a tariff hike of up to 25%, which came into effect from July.

BSNL records a huge increase

For the first time, BSNL has recorded a huge increase in subscribers while the private players have reported a decline.

BSNL recorded an increase of 2.93 million subscribers in July 2024, taking its total subscriber base from 85.58 million users in June 2024 to 88.51 million in July 2024.

Airtel records the highest decline

Sunil Mittal-led Bharti Airtel has recorded the biggest decline in its subscriber base in July at 1.69 million users. The telco’s subscriber base declined from 389.02 million in June 2024 to 387.33 million in July 2024.

Despite this, the telco continues to enjoy a high active subscriber base. The company's active subscribers stand at 383.66 million users out of its 387.33 million users, which is 99.05% of its total user base.

Vi continues to bleed subscribers

Vi, which is yet to launch 5G services in the country has once again reported a huge decline in subscribers. The company lost nearly 1.41 million users in July 2024.

The company’s subscriber base decreased from 217.30 million in June 2024 to 215.88 million users in July 2024.

Out of the 215.88 million users, the company’s active user base stands at 185.23 million users, which is 85.80%.

Reliance Jio also records a decline in users

Reliance Jio, which has been continuously increasing its subscriber base lost 7,58,463 subscribers in July 2024.

With this, Jio's subscriber base has decreased from 476.53 million in June 2024 to 475.77 million in July 2024.

Out of the 475.77 million subscribers, the company’s active subscriber base stood at 440.73 million, which is 92.64%.

MNP requests continue to grow

Mobile number portability (MNP), which allows users to shift from one telecom operator to another, recorded 13.68 million requests during July 2024. With this, the total number of MNP requests received since the introduction of this in November 2010 has reached 1.01 billion.

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