India's Mobile Subscribers Base Declined By 1.28 Crore In December 2021: TRAI

India's mobile subscriber base declined by 1.28 crore in December 2021 as compared to the previous month, TRAI's new report says.

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New Delhi: India's mobile subscriber base declined by 1.28 crore in December 2021 as compared to the previous month, with telecom major Bharti Airtel adding subscribers and Vodafone Idea and Reliance Jio losing users, says a new report by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) report. According to the TRAI report, Reliance Jio's mobile subscribers fell and the telco lost about 1.29 crore wireless users, and that pulled down its mobile subscriber tally to 41.57 crore in December. Vodafone Idea also lost 16.14 lakh mobile subscribers and its subscribers and base stood at 26.55 crore in December 2021.

However, Bharti Airtel gained 4.75 lakh customers during this period, increasing its wireless user base to 35.57 crore, as per monthly subscriber data released by TRAI.

Meanwhile, earlier in January, the TRAI said that cellular service operators must provide prepaid mobile recharge plans with a validity of 30 days. The move is expected to reduce the number of recharges done by a customer during a year and thus, save money.

As things stand, telecom operators provide prepaid recharge plans with a validity of 28 days, which leads to 13 "monthly" recharges in a year for customers. "Every telecom service provider shall offer at least one plan voucher, one special tariff voucher and one combo voucher having a validity of thirty days," TRAI had said in a notification.

Further, telecom companies have been mandated to comply with the order within 60 days from the day of notification of the rules.