Reliance Jio launched Jio Fiber at the end 2019 and has managed to surpass BSNL in only two years. BSNL has been dominant the segment for almost two decades.
JioFiber leads the fixed-line broadband market with 432.96 millions customers.
Reliance Jio saw a huge growth in mobile segments.
Bharti Airtel, with 210.10 millions broadband users, is on the second spot.
According to TRAI’s monthly subscriber report, Reliance Jio has become the largest player in fixed-broadband. Reliance Jio launched its Jio Fiber service in the final quarter of 2019, beating BSNL by nearly two years.
Reliance Jio disrupted this market by offering high speed internet plans at a 35% to 45% lower rate than its competitors, and some additional services. Similar to the way the telecom operator attracted customers when it first entered the market, the strategy was also used to attract new subscribers.
The company saw growth in mobile with a net increase of 20,19,362 clients. It now has 428 million subscribers. Bharti Airtel gained 13,18,251 mobile subscribers while Vodafone Idea (VIL), lost 18,97,050 customers between November 2021 and November 2021. BSNL, a state-owned telecom company, was also unable to attract customers. It lost 2,4062 mobile customers.
Reliance Jio currently dominates fixed-line broadband connections in India. It saw an increase in its customer base of 0.19million in November. This brings the total fixed broadband user base at 4.3 million. Bharti Airtel gained 0.1 million broadband subscribers in November, bringing its total customer base to 4.08 million. BSNL experienced a significant drop in its customer base, with 4.2 million subscribers in November 2021, compared to 4.72 million in October.
“Top five service providers constituted 98.68% market share of total broadband subscribers at November’s end,” TRAI stated.
Reliance Jio leads the fixed-line broadband market with 432.96 millions customers. Bharti Airtel, with its 210.10 millions broadband customers, is second. VIL has 122.40 millions users, BSNL has 23.62 million, and Atria Convergence has 1.98 million customers.
After new plans were launched, Jio Fiber experienced a surge in growth during September
Reliance Jio’s entry into wireless telecom has decimated all competition and seems poised to continue its success in wired broadband. In September, the company added 3.03 lakh broadband connections and 2.7 million fiber broadband connections.
Jio Fiber also held the record for adding the most wired broadband users in a single month, adding 1 lakh more users in July of this year.
Jio’s strong increase in subscribers coincided with the introduction of ultra-cheap fibre broadband plans starting at Rs 399 plus taxes.
Jio was able to add a maximum 1 lakh users per month before the new plans were implemented.
KING OF FIBER BROADBAND
Jio will likely be India’s largest fibre broadband provider, surpassing ACT with the increase in additions.
At September’s end, Jio Fiber had 2.1 lakh subscribers to ACT.
Jio could have overtaken ACT in October or November, given that Mukesh Ambani’s firm is adding thousands of new subscribers per month and ACT is adding 20,000 to 30,000 per month.
ACT has 17.3 lakh subscribers as of September 30, while Jio Fiber boasts 15.2 lakh broadband customers.
OVERALL WIRED MARK
Jio is India’s No.1 provider of fiber optic broadband, but it remains in third place when it comes the Indian wired broadband market.
India’s largest wired broadband provider is still BSNL, which is rapidly shrinking.
BSNL lost 50,000 broadband customers in September. However, it had 78 lakh wired broadband clients at the end of the month. Most of these customers are using copper-based DSL services which offer a maximum bandwidth of 10 Mbps.
Bharti Airtel is ranked second with approximately 26 lakh (2.6 millions) users. However, the majority of users have copper-based connections.
Due to the differences in expansion speed, Jio will likely overtake Bharti Airtel in India’s top private sector provider of wired broadband service services sometime between June and September.
Airtel still added 70,000 users in September, a record for the company as it continues to expand its partnerships with cable operators.
In order to take on Jio the company decided to tie up with cable operators in order to provide its broadband services. The partnership will see Airtel provide the plans, billing, and upstream connectivity while the cable operator will operate the last-mile connectivity.
Hathway, India’s only wired broadband operator, added 20,000 users in September.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the difficulties people have in meeting in person, Wired broadband in India is exploding.
Online education, work at home, and video are driving high-speed internet demand.
Jio Chairman Mukesh ambani has set his sightson signing 50 million homes, or approximately 20% of India’s total to Jio Fiber services.