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Reliance Jio Adds Fewest Active Subscribers In 25 Months

Reliance Jio added 30.7 lakh active subscribers on its network in May.

A woman talking on her mobile phone in Mumbai, India (Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg)
A woman talking on her mobile phone in Mumbai, India (Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg)

Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. added fewest active users in more than two years in May even as Mukesh Ambani’s telecom venture unseated Bharti Airtel Ltd. to become the nation’s second-biggest operator by subscribers during the month.

Reliance Jio added 30.7 lakh active subscribers—a metric that matters more—on its network in May, according to data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. That’s the lowest since April 2017 when it added only 3.8 lakh active users.

Higher active users don’t necessarily mean better revenue for an operator. But it indicates that a customer is frequently using the network and risk of losing the subscriber is low.

Vodafone Idea Ltd. has more reasons to worry. While the nation’s largest telecom operator continued to lose active subscribers, it also witnessed a decline in the number of revenue-generating users.

Active subscribers for Vodafone Idea fell for the 13th straight month in May. It also lost most broadband users—customers who predominantly use data are high revenue-generating as voice service is free in India—in nine months, the TRAI data showed. The operator’s user base shrunk by over 8.6 crore in the last one year. That’s because of intense competition and the company’s plan to charge a minimum monthly amount from users, forcing them to opt for higher-priced packs.

Aliasgar Shakir, telecom analyst with Motilal Oswal, had earlier said the fall in Vodafone Idea’s subscriber base is due to the implementation of minimum APRU plans and deteriorating network quality, possibly due to network integration issues.

Bharti Airtel, on the other hand, witnessed an increase in the number of broadband users in May. The company, now India’s third-largest telecom operator, added 26.2 lakh users during the month—the most in four months. But it lost nearly 41.8 lakh active subscribers—also the highest in four months.

The active subscriber base of India’s telecom market declined by nearly 1 crore, led by Vodafone Idea.

While Bharti Airtel’s active customer market share declined marginally in May over the previous month, Vodafone Idea’s fell for the 13th month in a row.

The entry of Reliance Jio in 2016 was a turning point in the telecom market. The upstart owned by Asia’s richest man stormed in with cheapest data tariffs to lure subscribers, prompting rivals to merge or exit the market.