Growth in subscriber base inches up, Motilal Oswal

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released subscriber data for Mar’23. Below are the key highlights:

• The industry-wide gross subscriber base increased 2m MoM to 1,144m, mainly led by RJio, after declining consistently by 1.2m for the last six months.
• Active subscriber base increased 6.7m MoM to 1,034m (v/s 2.8m increase in Feb’23). Bharti/RJio added 2.5m/5.0m subscribers MoM, whereas IDEA lost 0.5m subscribers.
• Mobile number portability (MNP): Total MNP requests have been consistently rising over the last eight months, validated by a higher churn and SIM consolidation. MNP requests in Mar’23 stood at 11.7m (v/s 11.2m in Feb’23), representing 1.1% of total active subscribers (v/s 0.9% in Mar’22).
• 4G subscribers: The pace of industry-wide 4G subscriber additions picked up by 6.6m in Mar’23 (after merely 0.5m adds in Feb’23) to reach 812m, i.e. 71% of gross subscribers. In the last one year, the average additions have been 4.5m per month. Bharti/RJio continued to add 2m/3.1m subscribers. IDEA added 1.1m subscribers after a decline of 1.3m in Feb’23.
• Bharti added 1m/2.5m gross/active subscribers (v/s 1m/0.8m adds in Feb’23), maintaining an active market share of 35.7%. Its MoM 4G additions stood at 2.5m subscribers (v/s 0.8m adds in Feb’23), taking its total 4G subscriber count to 236m.
• RJio continued to stand out with gross/active additions of 3.1m/5m subscribers MoM (v/s 1m/3.2m in Feb’23), gaining active market share by 20bp to 38.9% (the highest in the industry). Its MoM 4G subscriber additions stood at 3.1m (v/s 1m adds in Feb’23); the peak was seen last year at 7m adds in Jul’21.
• IDEA continued to witness 1.2m/0.5m MoM decline in gross/active subscribers (v/s a decline of 2m/0.8m in Feb’23) to 237m/208m. However, its MoM 4G subscribers rose 1.1m in Mar’23 (v/s a decline of 1.3m in Feb’23; average rise of 0.3m subscribers in the last six month) to 125m, with a 15.4% 4G market share.
• Wired broadband subscribers for the industry increased 0.7m MoM to 33.5m. RJio/Bharti added 310k/140k subscribers MoM (v/s 180k/130k adds in Feb’23). BSNL’s net subscribers inched up by 60k (v/s a decline of 640k in Feb’23).

For report, https://www.communicationstoday.co.in/growth-in-subscriber-base-inches-up/

CT Bureau