Reliance Jio tops net subscriber additions in May; Airtel trails, Vi and BSNL continue to lose users

Reliance Jio outpaced Bharti Airtel by a big margin on net subscriber additions in May, while state-run BSNL and cash-strapped Vodafone Idea continued losing subscribers, showed data issued by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.

Jio added 2.7 million net subscribers in May while Bharti added 275,621 wireless subscribers, TRAI data showed. In the same period, Vi lost 274,103 subscribers while BSNL's subscriber base fell by 1.35 million.

Consequently, overall wireless subscribers went up by 2.09 million in May, out of which 242,152 were added in rural areas. Total user base at the end of May 2025 stood at 1.16 billion.

As of May 31, Jio's wireless user base stood at 475 million, followed by Bharti Airtel at 390 million, and Vi at 204 million. BSNL's wireless user base stood at 90 million.

TRAI data also showed a fall in 5G fixed-wireless access subscribers from 7.5 million at the end of April to 7.4 million at the end of May, led by a reclassifcation of users of FWA-UBR (Fixed Wireless Access Unlicensed Band Radio) as fixed wireline customers. As a result, Jio reported a loss of 286,331 customers in the 5G FWA category, but actually gained 1.03 million customers, as per the reclassified data. Bharti Airtel reported a gain of 182,458 5G FWA users.

Despite the loss in users, Jio continued leading the growing 5G FWA segment with 5.85 million, while Airtel had 1.54 million users as of May 31, TRAI data showed.

Jio led the market in terms of wireless broadband subscribers with 480.96 million users, with Airtel the second-largest with 292.89 million followed by Vi at 126.67 million.

In terms of active subscribers, both Jio and Airtel reported a rise in May, while Vi and BSNL saw a decline in subscribers who were active on the date of peak VLR (Visitor Location Register) in May.

Jio had the highest number of active subscribers as against its total wireless subscriber base, at 462 million (97.25% of its total subscribers), followed by Airtel with 386.84 million (99.13% of total subscribers). Vi's active subscriber base fell to 172.87 million (84.56%), and BSNL had the lowest proportion of active subscribers at 57.85 million (63.73%).

Active, or visitor location register (VLR) data, put out by Trai every month, indicates the number of mobile users regularly using a mobile network.

As of May 2025, Jio continued to lead the Indian market for wireless services with a 40.92% market share, while Airtel remained second largest with a 33.61% share, followed by Vi at 17.61% and BSNL at 7.82%.

May saw 14.03 million requests for mobile-number portability, increasing the cumulative requests from 1.13 billion in April 2025 to 1.14 billion in May, since MNP was implemented.