Telecom subscriber base reaches 120 cr in Feb

New Delhi: The country's telecom subscriber base grew marginally to 120.5 crore on account of a net addition of customers by Reliance Jio and state-owned BSNL, according to data published by telecom regulator Trai on Thursday.

Both Reliance Jio and BSNL jointly added a net of 86.39 lakh mobile subscribers but the rest of the telecom operators jointly lost a net of 69.93 lakh wireless customers with Vodafone Idea losing the biggest chunk of mobile connections, as per the data.

The number of telecom subscribers in India increased to 120.54 crore at the end of February from 120.37 crore in January, according to the Telecom Monthly Subscriber Report released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).

The sector, dominated by wireless connection, recorded an increase in the mobile services subscriber base to 118.36 crore in February from 118.19 crore in January.

Reliance Jio alone added 77.93 lakh customers, taking its total subscriber base to 29.7 crore at the end of February.

According to a television commercial of the company, it has crossed 30 crore customer base now. BSNL added around 9 lakh new mobile customers, taking its total subscriber base to 11.62 crore in February.

"BSNL is the only operator other than Jio that has gained customers. Our performance shows that customers have faith in BSNL. We are able to compete and gain customers with our much-improved 3G network.