Jio, Airtel gain subscribers at Vi’s expense in Jan 2023

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) released its January 2022 report on the Telecom Subscription Data. As we are closely monitoring the wireless subscribers and with two telcos rolling out 5G Networks across India, Vodafone Idea is the only telco with no actual 5G rollout announcements except 5G Device support announcements and Delivery of 5G Ready SIM. Also, Vodafone Idea tweaks tariffs to make them look attractive to stop wireless subscriber churn. But all those moves really helped the telco? TRAI data for January 2023 says No, as the telco lost over 1.3 Million wireless subscribers.

Wireless Subscribers Scenario for January according to TRAI
Bharti Airtel added a total of 1,281,822 wireless subscribers, Vodafone Idea lost a total of -1,359,972 wireless subscribers, and Reliance Jio added a total of 1,658,448 wireless subscribers in the month of January 2023, as reported by TRAI. Vodafone Idea is now close to two years, having continuously lost wireless subscribers, despite its most lucrative tariffs in the market. With January data, Bharti Airtel wireless subscriber base stands at 368,890,517, Vodafone Idea Wireless Subscriber Base at 239,964,110 and Jio Wireless Subscriber Base at 426,174,687.

VLR Percentage
Regarding the VLR percentage, Bharti Airtel recorded the highest percentage of 99.30, followed by Reliance Jio with 92.56 and Vodafone Idea with a VLR percentage of 87.15.

Mumbai Circle
In we look at the Mumbai circle, the financial capital of India, Vodafone Idea is losing subscribers, and in the month of January lost -126,879 wireless subscribers. On the other hand, Airtel already announced 1 million unique 5G subscribers on its Network in Mumbai circle.

4G Network Improvement
In October, Vodafone Idea announced that it has improved its 4G Network capacity in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. However, if we observe the wireless subscriber numbers from October as well, Vodafone Idea has been losing subscribers in the respective circle and in January lost -60,387 subscribers.

Vodafone Idea’s Lucrative Offering Not Helping
If we recollect, Vodafone Idea has been indirectly reducing tariffs by adding more value to its plans. However, despite its Night Unlimited – Binge All Night, Weekend Data Rollover, Data Delight – Free Monthly 2GB of backup data every month, Free Extra Data on Online orders, OTT bundlings, and other benefits, Vodafone Idea is continuously losing overall subscribers.

Despite all the support from the Government, there was a recent report that without Tariff Hikes, Vodafone Idea would shut shop. However, the telco only tries to further indirectly reduce the tariffs as a measure, which is not helping it in any case if we look at the overall subscriber numbers.

5G Network Rollouts in India
Airtel and Jio are rolling out 5G Networks and even are offering Unlimited 5G Data for their 5G subscribers. Airtel 5G Plus is available in over 500 cities, and Jio in over 406 cities. India is witnessing one of the fastest 5G rollouts in the world, while there are no 5G Network announcements from Vodafone Idea.

For report, https://www.communicationstoday.co.in/trais-telecom-subscription-data-jan-31-2023/

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