Jio continues to lose active subscribers

Also, February witnessed 11.68 million mobile number portability (MNP) requests, a tad higher than the normal run rate of 8 million per month. After analysing the data, it seems that Bharti has been gaining subscribers from both Jio and Vodafone Idea through the MNP route.

Written by Kiran Rathee

May 13, 2021 02:15 IST

The download speed helps consumers in accessing content from the internet, while upload speed helps them in sending or sharing pictures and video to their contacts.

Even though Reliance Jio has added the maximum number of wireless subscribers in February, beating Bharti Airtel after six months, the company’s active user base continues to decline, with a loss of 0.2 million subscribers.

In November, when Jio had a 33.5% market share of active subscribers, marginally higher than Bharti Airtel’s 33.4%, the company has been lagging. Over the last three months, Jio’s market share of active users has declined to 33% as of February, while that of Airtel has risen to 34.6%.

As per ICICI Securities, this is the first time since its commercial launch that Reliance Jio’s active subscribers have declined two months in a row. “In the past 12 months, RJio has added 12 million active subscribers; this compared to Bharti’s net subscribers add on active and mobile broadband was 25.1 million and 41.6million, respectively. For Jio, active subs and mobile broadband subs (active) are the same,” ICICI Securities said.

As per data shared by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), Vodafone Idea, which managed to add wireless subscribers in February after nearly 16 months, also continues to lose active users. The company lost 0.2 million active subscribers and its market share of active user base declined to 26.1%. As of February, Bharti has the highest number of active subscribers at 340 million, followed by Jio at 324 million and Vodafone Idea at 256 million. Active subscribers or visitor location register (VLR) is a temporary database of users, who have roamed in a particular area that an operator serves.

But analysts said that March is going to be great for Jio with additions of about 8.6 million wireless subscribers, primarily because of the rollout of the new JioPhone 2021 offer with long-tenure plans. The company is giving a JioPhone for Rs 1,999, which comes with 24 months of unlimited service. Another plan is for Rs 1,499, which comes with 12 months of unlimited service.

As per Kotak Institutional Equities, in the mobile broadband segment, Bharti’s subscriber addition trajectory remained healthy as it gained 3.5 million subscribers in February, albeit a tad lower than Jio’s 4.3 million. However, on a cumulative basis over the past six months, Bharti’s mobile broadband subscriber additions at 28.8 million have eclipsed Jio’s addition of 12.3 million subscribers. Vodafone Idea continues to lag on this front as well adding 0.6 million mobile broadband subscribers in February and 3.4 million in the past six months.

This article was first uploaded on May thirteen, twenty twenty-one, at fifteen minutes past two in the night.