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Total wireless subscribers decreased from 1,186.84 million at the end of July-21 to 1,186.72 million at the end of August21, thereby registering a monthly decline rate of 0.01%.

Wireless subscription in urban areas was 650.39 million (up 0.05% MoM) while that in rural areas was 536.33 million (down 0.08% MoM) at the end of August 2021.

As on 31 August, 2021, the private access service providers held 90.09% market share of the wireless subscribers whereas BSNL and MTNL, the two PSU access service providers, had a market share of only 9.91%.

Of the total market shares of private service providers, 37.40% markets share was held by Relaince Jio, 29.85% by Bharti Airtel and 22.84% by Vodafone Idea.

Reliance Jio, which is owned by Reliance Industries, added 6.49 lakh wireless subscribers to its user base while Bharti Airtel added 1.38 lakh users to its user base in August 2021. However, Vodafone Idea lost a total of 8.33 lakh subscribers during the month.

Accordingly, Jio's wireless subscriber base was 44.38 crore, Airtel's wireless subscriber base was 35.41 crore and that of Vi was 27.10 crore as on 31 August 2021.

TRAI's data stated that the rural mobile user base for Jio increased by 0.46% to 19.08 crore in August 2021 from 19 crore in July 2021. The rural base of Airtel and Vi at the end of August 2021 was 17.07 crore (down 0.32% MoM) and 13.79 crore (down 0.47% MoM), respectively.

The S&P BSE Telecom Index was currently down 1.98% to 1,761.75. Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Sensex lost 562.5 points or 0.92% to currently trade at 60,697.46.

Vodafone Idea (down 3.29%), Reliance Industries (down (down 2.91%) and Bharti Airtel (down 2.28%) edged lower.

In a related development, Vodafone Idea yesterday said that its board has approved the exercise of the option of deferment of the Company's spectrum auction instalments for a period of 4 years (October 2021 to September 2025).

In September 2021, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had announced a relief package for debt-laden players in the Indian telecom sector.

The relief package involves a four-year moratorium on AGR and spectrum payment dues, reduced bank guarantees, and removing SUC for airwaves that will be acquired in future auctions, among others.

As per reports, the government department had recently reached out to telecom service providers to enquire if they would opt for a four-year moratorium on spectrum payment and AGR payment and has informed them to revert on the same by 29 October 2021.

Media reports further suggested that the ministry has also informed telcos that they can choose to convert their principal statutory dues during the deferred payment to equity when their moratorium period ends. Telcos need to send in their decisions in 3 months, the reports said.

“The other options offered in the said notification by DoT will be considered by the Board of directors of the company within the stipulated timeframe,” Vodafone Idea said.

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