TRAI: Airtel and Jio Accelerate; Telecom Sector Surges in March; BSNL Also Returns to the Path of Profitability

The race to attract customers in the Indian telecom sector is continuously intensifying. According to recent data from the telecom regulator, TRAI, the month of March proved to be highly lucrative for all major telecom companies. This month witnessed a tremendous surge in the pace at which new mobile subscribers were added across the country. Let's take a look at which company added how many new customers to its network.

**Airtel Takes the Lead; Jio Also Picks Up Momentum**
In terms of adding new customers during the month of March, Sunil Bharti Mittal's company, 'Bharti Airtel,' has emerged victorious. Airtel added 5.09 million (50.9 lakh) new users to its network this month—a figure significantly higher than the 4.86 million recorded in February.

On the other hand, Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio has also accelerated its pace in this race. While Jio added 1.62 million new customers in February, the company made a leap of more than double that amount in March, adding 3.23 million (32.3 lakh) new users to its subscriber base.

**Relief for Vodafone Idea and BSNL**
The month of March also brought some relief to Vodafone Idea (Vi), a company currently grappling with financial distress. The company had added a mere 21,927 customers in February; however, in March, this figure improved significantly, reaching 103,000.

The best news came for the state-run telecom company, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL). After suffering a loss of 102,000 customers in February, BSNL has finally staged a comeback. In March, BSNL successfully added 17,095 new users to its network.

Overall, India's telecom sector delivered a robust performance in March. Compared to the 6.40 million (64 lakh) new subscribers added in February, a total of 8.43 million (84.3 lakh) new mobile subscribers were added in March. TRAI's New Initiative for Remote Areas
Beyond these statistics, the telecom regulator TRAI is taking a significant step to enhance connectivity in the country's rural and remote regions. TRAI is currently working on a technology to deliver network services directly from satellites to mobile phones—known as Direct-to-Device (D2D).

Recently, TRAI issued a consultation paper seeking inputs from companies and stakeholders. TRAI aims to determine whether the spectrum allocated for mobile satellite services should be utilized for this D2D service, or if it should instead be operated using standard 4G and 5G airwaves. The advent of this new technology is expected to provide excellent network coverage even in those areas where mobile towers have not yet reached.

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