Bad news for Mukesh Ambani as Jio loses 79 lakh customers in just 30 days due to…

In a major setback for Reliance Jio — India’s largest telecom provider led by billionaire Mukesh Ambani — it lost a whopping 7.9 million (79 lakh) subscribers in a single month this year as millions of users switched to state-owned BSNL after private telcos hiked mobile tariffs by a significant margin earlier in July 2024.
According to data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), private telecom providers collectively lost nearly 10 million (1 crore) subscribers in the month of September 2024, with Mukesh Ambani-led Jio witnessing the biggest drop, losing 7.9 million users, while Sunil Mittal’s Bharti Airtel lost 1.4 million, an Vi (Vodafone-Idea) lost 1.5 million customers.
Meanwhile, even as private players continue to bleed subscribers, BSNL, which has witnessed a resurgence of late, has emerged as the definitive winner, with over 5.5 million (55 lakh) subscribers porting their numbers to the government-owned provider in the July-October 2024 period.
As per data shared by Department of Telecommunications (DoT), 1.5 million subscribers switched to BSNL from private telecom providers, Jio, Vi, and Airtel, in July, while the number surged t0 2.1 million in August 2024. In September and October 2024, around 1.1 million and 0.7 million users migrated to BSNL, respectively, the data revealed.
The data further revealed that more users were migrating to private providers from BSNL before the former announced a significant tariff hike in June 2024. However, after tariff plans of private players became costlier, the migration of users slowed down, with the state-owned telco losing just 310,000 users in July, 260,000 in August, 280,000 in September, and 510,000 in October 2024.
Recently, BSNL, according to DoT, reached another milestone by adding over 65 lakh new subscribers to its expanding network in the last two months. With its competitive pricing, BSNL is now posing a stiff challenge to industry leaders such as Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio and Sunil Mittal’s Airtel.
“I see a huge opportunity in BSNL,”  Union Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia had said while hailing government-owned telco’s revival and expansion.
Notably, BSNL Chairman and Managing Director, Robert Ravi, stated that the telecom provider does not intent to increase its tariffs in the near future.