Reliance Jio Adds Most Active Users For Fourth Month In A Row In October

Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. remained India's largest telecom operator by active users for the fourth consecutive month in October, adding more regularly paying subscribers than Bharti Airtel Ltd.

The Mukesh Ambani-controlled telecom operator added as many as 30.9 lakh active subscribers, compared to its six-month average of 39.5 lakh, according to data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India with a lag.

Bharti Airtel lost 7.6 lakh active subscribers after consistently adding active subscribers during June-September. Its six-month customer accretion stood at 4.2 lakh.

Vodafone Idea Ltd., too, continued to lose active subscribers. It lost as many as 14.1 lakh users in October compared with 7.5 lakh in September. As many as 33.3 lakh users have migrated out of the company's network in the last six months.

Reliance Jio’s active subscriber base grew 0.87% over the preceding month whereas Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea’s active subscriber share fell 0.22% and 0.6%, respectively.

Active Subscriber Base

• Bharti Airtel: 34.61 crore.

• Vodafone Idea: 23.43 crore.

• Reliance Jio: 35.85 crore.

Active Subscriber Market Share

Bharti Airtel's active subscriber market share fell 10 basis points in October. Reliance Jio has witnessed an improvement on this count since March. On the other hand, Vodafone Idea continued to lose its active market share.

Gross Subscriber Addition

The telecom industry gained 2.8-lakh gross subscribers in October 2021. While Reliance Jio gained 17.6 lakh users, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea lost 4.9 lakh and 9.6 lakh subscribers, respectively.

Vodafone Idea has, on average, lost 21.3 lakh users in the last one year.

Reliance Jio's gross subscriber base rose 0.41% over the preceding month. Comparatively, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea’s gross subscriber base fell 0.14% and 0.36% month-on-month, respectively.

Gross Subscriber Base

• Bharti Airtel: 35.39 crore.

• Vodafone Idea: 26.9 crore.

• Reliance Jio: 42.66 crore.

Industry Active Subscribers

The Indian telecom industry’s active subscribers rose for the fourth straight month in October, with the net addition being 8 lakh. That's higher than its six-month average addition of 2.9 lakh.

Inactive Subscribers

Bharti Airtel’s inactive user count marginally widened for the second straight month in October, while that of Reliance Jio narrowed for the third month in a row. On the other hand, Vodafone Idea’s inactive subscribers rose in October after narrowing in September.