The TRAI has released subscriber data for August 2021, which shows that Jio gained the maximum wireless subscribers in August and Vodafone Idea lost the maximum subscribers. Jio added the maximum subscribers in August 2021, which were over 6 lakh 49 thousand subscribers. After Jio, Airtel was the only wireless telco to add subscribers but there was a huge gap as the telco added 1 lakh 38 thousand subscribers. Vodafone Idea lost the maximum number of subscribers which was over 8 lakh.

Government telcos BSNL and MTNL lost over 60,000 and 5 thousand subscribers respectively. There was no overwhelming increase in the overall wireless subscriber base as the number rose to 1186.72 million in August, as against 1186.84 million in July, as per the data. Reports speculate the underwhelming additions in subscribers was because of the recent tariff hikes by the telcos.

As of 31st August 2021, TRAI noted that the private access service providers held 90.09 per cent market share of the wireless subscribers whereas BSNL and MTNL, the two PSU access service providers, had a market share of only 9.91 per cent. Jio had the highest market share of 37.40 per cent followed by Airtel with 29.85 per cent, Vodafone Idea with 22.84 per cent, BSNL with 9.63 per cent, and BSNL and MTNL with 10 per cent combined. BSNL and MTNL fared comparatively well when it came to market share in wireline subscribers. The PSU service providers held 46.91 per cent of the wireline market share as of 31st August 2021.

TRAI data showed that Airtel has the maximum proportion of active wireless subscribers as against its total wireless subscribers in August 2021 and MTNL has the minimum proportion of active wireless subscribers which was 18.55 per cent during the same period. The top five service providers constituted 98.75 per cent market share of the total broadband subscribers at the end of August 2021. These service providers were Reliance Jio which had 447.57 million subscribers, Airtel which had 205.96 million subscribers, Vodafone Idea which had 123.53 million, BSNL which had 24.28 million and Atria Convergence which had 1.95 million subscribers.

The total number of broadband users was further divided into wired and wireless broadband. The top five Wired Broadband Service providers were BSNL with 5.49 million subscribers, Reliance Jio with 3.71 million, Airtel with 3.69 million, Atria Convergence Technologies or ACT with 1.95 million subscribers and Hathway Cable and Datacom with 1.08 million subscribers. The top five wireless broadband service providers were Reliance Jio with 443.86 million subscribers, Airtel with 202.27 million subscribers, Vodafone Idea with 123.52 million subscribers, BSNL with 18.19 million subscribers and Tikona Infinet with 0.30 million subscribers.