Taking the government of India’s wishes to provide mobile connectivity to every village in the country, Reliance Jio has installed more telecom towers in rural areas than any other telecom operators including state run operator BSNL.
As per a recent government data, Reliance Jio, on an average, has installed a telecom tower in every second village as against one in ten villages by BSNL. All other operators including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular have put up a telecom tower in every fifth village.
At the end of November 2018, Reliance Jio had 2,63,775 telecom towers installed in 4,85,297 villages where it has offered services whereas Airtel had just 96,032 towers in rural areas covering 5,10,362 villages. Similarly, Vodafone Idea cover 471693 villages with 101704 towers. BSNL, the state-run operator, covers 430934 villages with just 43239 telecom towers, a report tabled in the parliament revealed.
| FY2017 | FY2018 | FY2019 | ||||
| Operators | Villages | Towers | Villages | Towers | Villages | Towers |
| BSNL | 416882 | 39694 | 427445 | 41508 | 430934 | 43239 |
| Airtel | 507676 | 91027 | 509203 | 93122 | 510362 | 96032 |
| Vodafone | 376771 | 75708 | 378891 | 74815 | 471693 | 101704 |
| Jio | 180049 | 92156 | 394041 | 168891 | 485297 | 263755 |
| Idea | 388339 | 73396 | 386968 | 73002 | 471693 | 101704 |
It is also interesting to know that Reliance Jio has expanded its rural telephony presence at a much faster than its competitors like Airtel, Vodafone Idea and BSNL. In the year 2017, Jio’s services covered 180049 villages, and by the end of November 2018, the Mukesh Ambani-led firm has reached out to 485297 villages.
Compare that to Airtel – its services were present in 507676 villages by March 2017 and by November 2018, it extended its services to close to another 3000 villages taking the total tally to 510362.
Vodafone Idea, the biggest telco now by the number of subscribers, was present in 388339 villages by March 2017 and by November 2018, it was present in 471693 villages, extending it to 83354in last three years.
Summing it up, in last three years, Airtel has extended its mobile services to 2686 villages, Vodafone Idea has extended to 83354 villages, BSNL has extended to 14052 villages, whereas Jio has extended the same to 305248 villages.
Perhaps this is the reason the Mukesh Ambani-led firm can provide mobile connectivity in almost all the locations in the country.As per a recent report, as of December 2018, Jio’s 4G services are available in 99.3% of the country’s location making it the leader in Indian telecom space.