Bhubaneswar: State-owned telecom service provider Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has strengthened its subscribers’ base in Odisha in the month of September. Telecom regulator, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) released its monthly report which shows that BSNL added 5, 84,057 new subscribers in the month of September in Odisha, surpassing leading telecom major Reliance Jio which added 2, 00, 753 in the same month.
BSNL lost 5.25 lakh subscribers in August but now has gained over 5.84 lakh subscribers in a period of one month.
The TRAI report reads, “In August, BSNL’s subscribers’ base was 51, 89, 358 but now it has reached to 57, 73,415 in September, adding over 5.84 lakh new subscribers.”
Speaking to Orissa POST, CGM of BSNL Odisha Circle Uday Shankar Panda said, “Owing to cyclone Fani (in May), the BSNL network was severely damaged. As a result, we lost significant number of subscribers in August.
However, we have restored everything (network across the cyclone affected areas) because of which, we have seen growth in subscribers in September.”
Reliance Jio reached a subscriber base of 1.10 crore by adding over 2 lakh new subscribers.
However, two major telecom service providers Vodafone Idea and Airtel have lost their subscribers drastically in Odisha. According to the TRAI report, Airtel lost 1, 33, 683 subscribers in September and Vodafone Idea lost 2, 82, 411 subscribers in the same month.
The total telecom subscriber base in the state witnessed a rise in September. The TRAI report reveals a total subscriber addition of 3, 68,744. In August, it was 32.50 lakh but it rose to 32.87 lakh in Odisha in September, reported TRAI. However, the net addition in August (in Odisha) posted a negative growth.