According to the data released by the TRAI, while Jio added 77.93 lakh customers, BSNL added around 9 lakh new customers New Delhi: As India’s telecom subscriber base grew marginally to settle at 120.54 crores at the end of February and most telecom operators lost customers, state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and Reliance Jio formed the only bright spot in the otherwise dim picture. A big chunk of the net addition of customers came from the state-run telecom company and Reliance Jio. According to the data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), while Jio added 77.93 lakh customers, BSNL added around 9 lakh new customers. This was despite the fact that BSNL still doesn’t have a 4G spectrum. While Jio’s total number of subscribers stood at 29.7 crores, BSNL’s total subscriber base hovered around 11.62 crores at the end of February. The total number of telecom subscribers in India rose from 120.37 crores in January to 120.54 crores at the end of February, TRAI said.

BSNL CMD says customers have faith in BSNL

“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. In our endeavour to provide service, all our officers and employees are together,” BSNL Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) Anupam Shrivastava said.

Vodafone Idea lost most users

Even as Reliance Jio and BSNL together added a total of 86.39 lakh mobile subscribers, the rest of the telecom operators jointly lost a total of 69.93 lakh wireless customers. India’s biggest telecom operator, Vodafone Idea, lost the biggest chunk of mobile connections — 57.87 lakh — reducing its customer base to 40.93 crores in February. After Vodafone Idea, Tata Teleservices lost 11.47 lakh mobile customers, Airtel lost 49,896 subscribers, MTNL 4,652 and Reliance Communication 3,611 subscribers.