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Wireless Subscriber Base Increases By 9.9 Million: ICRA

The wireless subscriber base in the country grew by 9.9 million, taking the aggregate to 1,166.9 million. The active wireless subscriber base also witnessed steady growth adding 6.9 million over the previous month. Further, the wireless broadband subscriber base too maintained growth momentum, witnessing a growth of 1% during the month of August 2018.

Elaborates Harsh Jagnani, Sector Head & Vice President- Corporate Ratings, ICRA, “The growth in subscriber base in August has been primarily led by RJio, which added 12.2 million subscribers, witnessing the highest monthly addition in last 18 months. With this, RJio has now added over 52 million subscribers to its network in 5M FY2019, thereby consolidating its position in the industry. In line with increase in total subscriber base, RJio has added 38 million active subscribers, inching closer to 200 million mark. While the active subscriber level of the industry is similar to that of 18 months back, an important aspect is that there has now been three months of consistent subscriber growth – adding 29 million, following the certainty on industry participants with three private operators remaining (apart from the state-owned ones).”

On gross basis, Vodafone-Idea leads the market with a subscriber market share of 38%, followed by Bharti at 30% and RJio at 21%. On active subscriber basis, Vodafone-Idea market share stands at 40%, followed by Bharti at 34% and RJio at 20% as of August 2018. Overall, these top three telcos together have subscriber base of 1,026.8 million or 88.0% market share as of August 2018. In terms of active subscribers as well, the top three telcos hold 946.0 million active subscribers or 93.4% market share as of August 2018.

As per ICRA, another positive for the industry has been the growth momentum in the wireless broadband subscriber base, increasing to 445.6 million in August 2018, an increase of 1% over the previous month. Further, considering that wireless broadband subscribers still constitute only around 38% of the total wireless subscribers in the country, there is considerable growth potential. – CT Bureau

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