NEW DELHI: Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd closed the gap with rival Bharti Airtel Ltd in terms of subscriber base to just 7.1 mln users as of April-end from 18.5 mln a month earlier, data from Telecom Regulatory Authority of India showed.
Sunil Mittal-led Bharti Airtel net lost 3.3 mln users in April to end the month with 321.9 mln subscribers. Reliance Jio net added 8.1 mln subscribers during the month and had 314.8 mln users as of April-end.
Going by the trend, the Reliance Industries Ltd subsidiary, which started commercial operations less than three years ago, may have toppled Bharti Airtel in May to become the second-largest mobile operator in the country.
Mukesh Ambani’s sector-disrupting telecom company seems to have benefited from Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea Ltd’s strategy to weed-out low value subscribers to shore up their average revenue per user.
The two companies had said they were expecting losses in user base when they had introduced the strategy in Oct-Dec. In April, Vodafone Idea net lost 1.6 mln users to close the month with 393.25 mln subscribers.
The total number of mobile subscribers across the country were at 1.16 bln, an increase of 486,707 from the previous month primarily due to addition by Reliance Jio and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd.
State-owned BSNL resumed its trend of subscriber additions, adding 228,586 users during the month. In March, the company had lost 560,593 users, its first decline since September.
TRAI’s subscriber data for April:
CompanyTotal subscriber base (as on Apr 30) April changeMarket share (in percent)Vodafone Idea393,254,871(-) 1,582,14233.83%Bharti Airtel321,891,732(-) 3,289,53427.69%Reliance Jio Infocomm314,807,2198,082,38327.08%Bharat Sanchar Nigam115,893,162228,5869.98%Mahanagar Telephone Nigam3,449,053(-) 4,1700.30%Reliance Communications18,882(-) 1080.002%ALL INDIA1,162,298,276486,707
ACTIVE SUBSCRIBERS
While Reliance Jio seems on track to topple Bharti Airtel in terms of overall subscribers, in terms of active users, the gap between them was much wider as of April-end.
Active subscriber data is calculated based on visitor location register data. A visitor location register is a database of subscribers active within a mobile operator’s network, including those roaming on its network. Second-placed Bharti Airtel had 324.1 mln active users as of April-end, 59.1 mln ahead of Reliance Jio’s 265.0 mln active user base.
That is because only about 84% of Reliance Jio’s users are active, as per the TRAI data, while for Bharti Airtel, the number stands at over 100%, indicating that a number of other operators’ users are roaming on its network apart from its own customers.
Bharti Airtel’s active subscriber base, however, decreased by 3.7 mln in April, while Reliance Jio’s increased by 7.2 mln. India’s largest mobile operator Vodafone Idea net lost 26 mln active users in April and had 342.1 mln at the end of the month.
Active subscriber data for April:
CompanyTotal active subscribers (as of Apr 30) Active subscriber additions in AprilVodafone Idea342,249,714(-) 26,014,768Bharti Airtel324,112,785(-) 3,734,967Reliance Jio Infocomm264,973,2367,201,684Bharat Sanchar Nigam67,055,784479,254Mahanagar Telephone Nigam1,162,33149,012Reliance Communications13,718(-) 485ALL INDIA999,692,747(-) 22,004,347
WIRELESS BROADBAND
Bharti Airtel net lost 3.18 mln wireless broadband subscribers in April, losing its second-spot to Vodafone Idea after having taken the position just a month earlier. As of April-end, Bharti Airtel had 109.1 mln wireless broadband subscribers against Vodafone Idea’s 109.6 mln.
All of Reliance Jio’s subscribers are categorised wireless broadband users as the operator only provides fourth-generation long term evolution services, unlike its rivals, which also have legacy 2G operations. End IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT
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