Airtel gains 7.1 lakh gross subscribers, Jio loses 93.2 lakh

Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. added the highest number of active subscribers for the second straight month in January despite losing the maximum number of gross subscribers.

The Mukesh Ambani-controlled telecom operator added 41.8 lakh regularly paying users compared with its last one-year monthly average accumulation of 30.3 lakh, according to data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.

Bharti Airtel gained 13.1 lakh active subscribers in January, below its one-year monthly average of 16.5 lakh additions.

Vodafone Idea continues to lose active subscribers but narrowed it to 6.5 lakh from 21.2 lakh in December. The company lost 22.6 lakh active users every month on an average in the last one year.

Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio’s active subscriber base grew 0.37% and 1.15%, respectively, over the preceding month, while Vodafone Idea’s saw a decline of 0.29%.

Reliance Jio continues to remain India’s biggest operator by active customers since July 2021.

The subscriber trends of December and January indicate the tariff hikes have been absorbed well without any impact on active subscribers on account of SIM consolidation or even otherwise, “which is positive”, Dolat Capital said in a report.

Active subscriber base (January 2022):

• Bharti Airtel: 35 crore
• Vodafone Idea: 22.88 crore
• Reliance Jio: 36.85 crore

Active subscriber market share
Bharti Airtel active subscriber market share fell 8 basis points in January. Reliance Jio’s share continues to rise since March 2021 even as Vodafone Idea keeps losing ground.

Gross subscriber addition
The telecom industry lost subscribers for the second straight month in January. Total gross user base shrunk by 93.8 lakh compared with one-year monthly average of 0.7 lakh additions. The industry gained subscribers in eight out of 12 months in 2021.

Reliance Jio lost 93.2 lakhs gross subscribers, followed by Vodafone Idea’s 3.9 lakh. Bharti Airtel gained 7.1 lakh gross subscribers.

Bharti Airtel’s gross subscriber base rose 0.2% over the preceding month in January. Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea’s count fell 2.24% and 0.15%, respectively.

Gross subscriber base (January 2022):
Bharti Airtel: 35.65 crore

Vodafone Idea: 26.51 crore

Reliance Jio: 40.64 crore

Industry active subscribers
The Indian telecom industry’s active subscribers rose for the second straight month in January 2022. The active subscribers’ addition in January 2022 was 59.4 lakhs compared to last one year average monthly addition of 21 lakhs subscribers.

Inactive subscribers
Bharti Airtel’s inactive user count narrowed for the third straight month in January, while it fell for Reliance Jio for the second month in a row. For Vodafone Idea, inactive users rose for the fourth straight month.

BloombergQuint