RJio gains active subscribers; Airtel leads in 4G additions

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released subscriber data for Oct’22. Below are the key highlights:

• The decline in industry-wide gross subscribers continued as the subscriber base fell by 1.8m on a MoM basis (v/s a fall of 3.7m in Sep’22). This decline was led by a continued decline in IDEA’s subscriber base (a fall of 3.5m on a MoM basis).
• Active subscriber base too witnessed a decline of 1.1m MoM (v/s a 0.6m MoM in Sep’22) at 1,013m, dragged down by a decline in BHARTI and IDEA. This indicated a continued decline from Jun’22, except for a gain in Aug’22. RJio added 4.9m subscribers, while BHARTI saw a MoM contraction of 1m subscribers. IDEA reported a subscriber decline of 0.5m on a MoM basis.
• 4G subscribers: Industry-wide 4G subscriber additions clocked a healthy growth on a MoM basis. Subscriber additions bounced back to 5.1m after moderating to 1.5m in Sep’22, taking the total count to 789m. BHARTI remained a key beneficiary of the growth, adding 3m subscribers MoM. RJio/IDEA added 1.4m/0.2m subscribers.
• BHARTI saw moderate (0.8m MoM) gross subscriber additions (v/s 0.4m additions in Sep’22). The active subscriber base declined by 1m MoM to 358m (v/s additions of 2.5m in Sep’22), with an active market share contraction of 10bp to 35.3%. Incremental 4G additions remained the highest in the industry at 65.9% as it added 3m subscribers (v/s 1m in Sep’22), taking its total 4G subscriber count to 223m.
• RJio’s gross subscriber additions improved to 1.4m (v/s 0.7m in Sep’22), thereby retaining leadership share at 36.8%. Active subscriber additions were strong at 4.9m MoM (v/s 0.9m additions in Sep’22), gaining 50bp market share to 38.6%. 4G subscriber additions stood at 1.4m on a MoM basis, in line with gross subscriber additions.
• IDEA continued to witness a MoM gross/active subscriber decline of 3.5m/0.5m (v/s a decline of 4m/3m in Sep’22) to 246m/212m. Its 4G subscriber base remained flattish at 123m in Oct’22.
• Wired broadband subscribers for the industry continued to grow, up 0.3m MoM to 31.4m. RJio/BHARTI added 290k/140k subscribers MoM, while BSNL’s net subscriber additions remained flat

CT Bureau