Reliance Jio Adds Most Active Users In December Even As Tariff Hikes Kick In

Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. beat Bharti Airtel Ltd. to add the most regularly paying users after a month even as its gross subscriber base shrunk as tariff hikes kicked in.

The Mukesh Ambani-controlled telecom operator added as many as 47.2 lakh active subscribers in December compared with its one-year average monthly addition of 29 lakh, according to data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.

• Bharti Airtel, too, added active users, but fewer than its one-year monthly average addition of 20.4 lakh.

• Vodafone Idea Ltd. has been losing such subscribers for close to two years. Its one-year average monthly active subscriber loss stood at 22.1 lakh.

Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio’s active subscriber base grew 0.23% and 1.31%, respectively, over the preceding month, whereas Vodafone Idea’s fell 0.91%.

Reliance Jio remained India’s biggest carrier by active customers for the sixth straight month.

Active Subscriber Base (December 2021)

• Bharti Airtel: 34.87 crore

• Vodafone Idea: 22.95 crore

• Reliance Jio: 36.43 crore

Active Subscriber Market Share

Bharti Airtel’s active subscriber market share fell 7 basis points in December, while Reliance Jio’s had been improving since March 2021. Vodafone Idea continued to lose share.

Gross Subscriber Addition

The telecom industry lost 1.29 crore gross subscribers in December after two months.

“The effect of tariff increases towards the end of November (in terms of SIM consolidation) seems to have kicked in,” a DART report said. December saw a substantial loss of subscribers for Jio on account of clean-up of lower-end subscribers but its active user addition was healthy, the brokerage said.

Reliance Jio lost 1.29 crore gross subscribers, followed by Vodafone Idea’s loss of 16.1 lakh. The one-year average monthly subscriber loss of Vodafone Idea stood at 19 lakh. Bharti Airtel gained 4.75 lakh gross subscribers.

Bharti Airtel’s gross subscriber base rose 0.13% over the preceding month. Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea’s fell 3.01% and 0.6%, respectively.

Gross Subscriber Base (December 2021)

• Bharti Airtel: 35.58 crore

• Vodafone Idea: 26.55 crore

• Reliance Jio: 41.57 crore

Industry Active Subscribers

The Indian telecom industry’s active subscribers rose in December. The addition of 42.5 lakh such users during the month is 1.82 times the one-year average monthly addition of 23.3 lakh.

Inactive Subscribers

Bharti Airtel’s inactive user count narrowed for the second straight month in December. Vodafone Idea’s inactive subscribers rose for the third straight month.