Reliance Jio leads in subscriber addition for October, adding 1.8 million subscribers on a net basis, up from the sharp decline of 19 million subscribers seen in the previous month, according to data from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).
Bharti’s wireless subscriber base declined by 0.5 million in October versus the addition of 0.3 million in the previous month. Vodafone Idea reported a decline of 1 million on its overall wireless base, with the pace of decline consistent across the past three months.
Jio’s active subscriber base grew by 3.1 million in October to a total of 358 million by the end of the month. In comparison, Bharti lost 0.8 million and Vodafone Idea lost 1.4 million.
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As Jio improves its active subscriber share, it is also the sole telco to improve its VLR ratio (visitor location register) in October. However, Jio’s VLR ratio of 84 per cent is still behind Bharti’s at 97.8 per cent.
Mobile broadband
In the mobile broadband space, Jio was the sole telco to increase its market share by 0.06 per cent to 50.8 per cent. Jio’s wired broadband subscription market share was up by 0.79 per cent to 16.9 per cent of the overall market. It continues to hold the highest market share for wired broadband as well.
Bharti, on the other hand, saw its first decline in the wireless subscriber base in 4 months, losing 0.5 million subscribers. However, it continues to hold traction in the mobile broadband segment, adding 1.3 million subscribers in October against 1.2 million in the previous month.
In the mobile broadband segment, Bharti has added 37.2 million subscribers over the past twelve months, well above the 20.2 million added by Jio. Vodafone Idea continues to lag on this front, adding a modest 2 million mobile broadband subscribers in the given period.
4G networks
On the 4G side, Bharti gained 1.3 million subscribers in October and Jio gained 1.8 million while Vodafone Idea stayed flat at 122 million.
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For cash strapped telcos battling low average revenue per user (ARPU), up-gradation of subscribers to the 4G network is an integral strategy to bolster ARPUs, especially for Vodafone Idea which is in dire need of 4G additions. Industry 4G subscribers grew 3.9 million (versus a decline of 18.7 million in September) to 773.09 million.
