Net addition of mobile subscribers lost steam in January, with the industry losing 1.2 million subscribers on a net basis, the latest figures by the Cellular Operators Association of India showed. Although the top three operators – Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular – collectively added 3.9 million subscribers during the month, the net subscriber addition was negative as Aircel and Telenor collectively lost 5.1 million subscribers. While Bharti, Vodafone and Idea added 1.5 million, 1.3 million and 1.1 million subscribers, respectively, to their kitty, Aircel lost 3.5 million subscribers and Telenor’s count went down by 1.6 million. Analysts said with Aircel surrendering its licence in six circles and discontinuing operations there from January 30, its 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 be porting out mostly to Bharti.
During December 2017 as well, subscriber addition by the industry was not as per expectations. The year 2017 closed on a pessimistic note as operators added a mere 0.14 million subscribers on a net basis during December, the lowest by the industry in the last calendar year. Since January last year, this is the fourth time that subscriber additions have hit negative. Besides January 2018, during July, August and September, the industry lost 3.8 million, 6.4 million and 2 million subscribers, respectively.
Among individual operators, Bharti continued to hold the top spot in January, with a 29.50% subscriber market share and a count of 291.62 million. It was followed by Vodafone, which ended the month with 213.81 million subscribers and a market share of 21.63%. Idea’s total subscriber count stood at 197.64 million and it controlled 19.99% of the market. During January, UP (East) remained the top circle with a total of 85.58 million subscribers, while Maharashtra came second with a total of 81.56 million mobile subscribers. COAI does not provide the latest subscriber numbers for Reliance Jio.