Bharti Airtel has added more broadband users in January than Reliance Jio — a first for the company since the entry of the telecom arm of Reliance Industries, whose cheap tariffs have completely disrupted the telecom market.

Data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) for January showed that Airtel added nearly 10 million broadband users at 110.25 in January against 100.26 in December.

The number of broadband subscribers of Jio stood at 289.44 million against 280.12 million, a net addition of 9.3 million.

The figures should bring some cheer to Bharti Airtel, whose net profit crashed 72 per cent for the third quarter ended December 31, 2018. Revenues from broadband are higher compared with voice, which is largely free after the entry of Jio.

It comes at a time Airtel has changed its strategy to focus on revenue generating customers.

“The definition of the customer is now revenue earning customer from service revenue rather than incoming (voice) revenue in the last 30 days,” Gopal Vittal, managing director and chief executive officer, India, Bharti Airtel, had told analysts at a conference call after the announcement of the company’s third quarter numbers.

Shares fall

Optimism over the broadband users pushed the Bharti Airtel scrip up over four per cent to a high of Rs 347.20 in intra-day trades. However, the counter gave up the gains and settled at Rs 331.15, a drop of 0.78 per cent over the previous close.

One reason for the fall was the furious pace at which Jio is adding mobile users. Jio added over 93 lakh new mobile customers, while Airtel added over a lakh new customers.

At this rate, Jio is set to overtake Airtel in terms of mobile subscribers in the next five months.