After a dismal show by telecom operators in January 2018 in terms of subscriber additions, the industry not only bettered its performance in February, but also added 10.84 million net subscribers, its highest in more than a year.
According to the latest data from industry body, COAI, telecom companies on a net basis added 10.84 million subscribers, compared with them losing 1.2 million during January 2018.
While Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular added 4.17 million, 3.25 million and 4.42 million subscribers, respectively, Telenor lost a million subscribers during February.
Another interesting development during the month was that Idea not only became the third operator to cross the 200 million subscriber mark, but its additions in February were the highest by an operator for the month.
Analysts said that with Aircel surrendering its licence in six circles and discontinuing operations in them from January 30, subscribers in these areas are porting out to other operators. Telenor, on the other hand, is in the process of merging operations with Bharti, so it’s obvious that its subscribers will mostly be porting out to Bharti. Aircel did not report the subscriber numbers for February.
Since January 2017, net subscriber additions have dived four times. Besides January 2018 when the industry lost 1.2 million subscribers, during July, August and September last year, it had lost 3.8 million, 6.4 million and 2 million subscribers, respectively.
Among individual operators, Bharti continues to hold the top spot in February with a 29.50% subscriber market share and a count of 295.
