Even as Vodafone Idea continues to report subscriber churn for over two years now, the telecom operator in August logged lowest monthly user loss so far at 49,782, according to data from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai). The reason for the lowest user churn can be attributed to the improvement in subscriber mix with 4G subscriber additions, according to analysts.
Infact in the July-September quarter, the telecom operator net lost 1.6 million subscribers, which it said was the lowest quarterly subscriber fall since merger. During the earnings call with analysts last month, Vodafone Idea CEO Akshaya Moondra said the lower decline in subscribers was a mixture of a few things combined together. “One is, of course, the market intensity is higher and the overall customer acquisitions and maybe the additions of customers in the industry is also increasing.”
“As far as Vi’s performance is concerned, I think besides the normal performance improvement that we are focusing on in terms of getting better subscriber additions during the quarter, after a long time while the figure is quite nominal, we’ve also seen a positive trend on the consumer side of the postpaid business,” Moondra added.
On the other hand, peer BSNL lost 2.23 million subscribers in August, which was its highest susbcriber monthly churn in absence of 4G services and competition from private operators. The company lost subscribers for the 20th straight month, taking its base to 95.8 million at the end of August.
Telecom operators Jio and Airtel continue to lead the additions in wireless subscribers. Reliance Jio added 3.2 million during the month, taking its total user base to 445.7 million, whereas Airtel added 1.2 million users, and its mobile user base as of August-end was at 376.46 million.
The total mobile subscriber base as of August-end was at 1.148 billion with an addition of 2.18 million users in the month. Both Airtel and Jio are also gaining subscribers as Vodafone Idea and BSNL continue to lose subscribers. Trai data suggests that Vodafone Idea’s market share fell to 19.88% from 19.92% in July, whereas Airtel’s market share rose to 32.78% in August from 32.74%, and Jio’s share also rose to 38.81% from 38.6% in the wireless segment.
Barring UP (West), Mumbai, West Bengal, Bihar, Karnataka, Punjab, Haryana, and Jammu and Kashmir, all other service areas have shown growth in their wireless subscribers during August. In urban areas, the overall mobile subscriber rose to 657.47 from 656.47 million, whereas the rural subscriber base rose to 521.74 million from 520.38 million.
Of the total 1.148 billion subscribers, 1.043 billion or 91% were active, according to the peak visitor location register, which shows the number of active users, including those roaming on a mobile operator’s network. The total active user base during the month fell by 3 million.
Airtel lost 398,883 active users, whereas Jio added nearly 1.18 million. Airtel’s active user base was at 375.5 million, while Jio’s was 417.1 million. Vodafone Idea and BSNL continue to lose active subscribers by 2.9 million and 1 million, respectively, during the month. Vodafone Idea’s total active subscriber base was at 199.38 million, while that of BSNL was at 50.5 million.
With regard to the 4G subscriber base, the three telecom operators added 7.09 million subscribers. These additions came on the back of the shift in the subscriber base from 2G, according to analysts. Since Jio’s network is completely on 4G from the start, its 4G subscriber addition is the same as that of total additions.
Airtel added 2.58 million 4G subscribers, taking its total 4G subscribers to 246.99 million. Vodafone Idea added 1.27 million 4G subscribers, taking its total 4G base at 125.5 million as of August-end.
Airtel’s wireline subscriber base at the end of August was at 7.78 million, whereas BSNL’s subscriber base in the segment was at 6.33 million. During the month, BSNL lost 103,802 users in the wireline segment, whereas Airtel added 116,581 users. Jio’s subscriber base in wireline rose to over 10.3 million, with addition to 178,808 subscribers.