BSNL adds over 800K users in September; private telcos lose 11 million

State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) continued to add mobile subscribers for the third straight month on the back of users’ port-out from private telecom operators Jio, Airtel and Vodafone Idea after the recent tariff hikes.

In September, BSNL added 849,206 mobile users, taking its user base to 91.9 million, according to data from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai). The company’s user additions, however, have slowed down compared with the 2.5 million it added in August and 2.9 million users it added in July.