Reliance Jio adds most active users for second straight month in April

Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. added the highest number of active users among peers for the second straight month in April.

The Mukesh Ambani-controlled telecom operator added 35 lakh regularly paying subscribers compared with its six-month average of 22 lakh, according to data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.

Bharti Airtel Ltd. added 26 lakh, the ninth straight month when the carrier accumulated users who recharge regularly. It was, however, below the six-month average of 46 lakh net additions.

Vodafone Idea Ltd. lost 21 lakh such customers, accelerating the pace after the erosion of subscriber base subsided in the past few months.

Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel’s active subscriber base rose 1.1% and 0.75% over the preceding month, respectively. For Vodafone Idea, it fell 0.81%.

Active Subscriber Base (April 2021):

• Bharti Airtel: 34.69 crore
• Reliance Jio: 33.52 crore
• Vodafone Idea: 25.36 crore

Telecom Market Share

Gross Subscriber Addition
Reliance Jio added 47.6 lakh gross subscribers in April—9.2 times higher than the addition by Bharti Airtel. It outpaced Bharti Airtel on this count for the third straight month after trailing for six months from August 2020 to January 2021.

Jio’s last six-month average is 31 lakh customers.

Vodafone Idea lost 18.1 lakh gross subscribers in April, after adding users in February and March. Between May 2020 and April 2021, the struggling carrier has lost over 3.26 crore gross subscribers.

Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio’s gross subscriber base increased 0.1% and 1.1% month-on-month, respectively, in April. Vodafone Idea’s shrank 0.6%.

Gross subscriber base (April 2021):

• Bharti Airtel: 35.29 crore
• Vodafone Idea: 28.19 crore
• Reliance Jio: 42.77 crore

Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea Trail
Net addition of gross users (in lakhs)

Industry Active Subscribers
The Indian telecom industry continued to add active subscribers for the ninth month in a row. Net addition of 34.5 lakh in April, however, was about a third of 1.2 crore in March. The industry’s six-month average is 59.1 lakh.

Telecom Industry’s Active Users

Inactive Subscribers
Bharti Airtel’s inactive user count continues to narrow since November 2020. For Reliance Jio, it widened for the fourth month on the trot. Vodafone Idea’s inactive subscribers widened for the third straight month.

Logging Out
Inactive subscribers of telecom firms in crore

Bloomberg