Kolkata: Bharti Airtel added up to 3.7 million active mobile users in June, snatching the top spot in this score from Reliance Jio Infocomm, which lost 2.1 million active subscribers.
The struggling telco Vodafone Idea (Vi), though it suffered the most on this score, lost 3.7 million active customers, Motilal Oswal said, analyzing June subscriber data released by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of India ( Trai).
Airtel’s active mobile user base has increased to 311 million (307 million) in June, while Jio and Vi have dropped to 310 million (313 million) and 273 million (277 million) respectively during the previous month.
“Bharti Airtel regained the top spot in the active mobile subscriber market in June after losing it to Jio in May,” the brokerage said in a note.
The Visitor Location Record or “VLR” is a key metric that reflects the actual number of subscribers actively using a mobile network. The latest data from Trai showed that 98.14% of Airtel users were active, while the numbers were much lower: 89.49% for Vi and 78.15% for Jio.
Vi and Jio’s combined active mobile user losses, in fact, dragged India’s active mobile subscriber base to 958 million in June, eroding gains on this metric in May 2020.
“The industry witnessed the loss of 2.8 million active subscribers in June to 958 million after gaining 2.9 million active subscribers in May,” said Motilal Oswal. However, he added that Vi and Jio’s drops in June were partially offset by strong additions from active Airtel users.
Analysts said Vi’s continued loss of subscribers is mainly due to its weak network capabilities and speculation around its business continuity, given its huge and outstanding adjusted gross income (AGR).
Overall, Jio added nearly 4.5 million mobile users in June, topping 397 million, driven by the gradual easing of Covid-19 blocking restrictions and consumers taking last December’s price increases in stride. Jio has also become the largest telecommunications company in rural India, ending Vi’s dominance in the segment. Jio’s rural mobile user base grew to 166.34 million in June, surpassing Vi’s 166.02 million for the first time, according to data from Trai.
Airtel and Vi’s gross subscriber base fell 1.12 million and 4.82 million respectively in June, dragging the country’s overall mobile user base down from 3.2 million to 1.14 billion.
Sector mobile broadband (MBB) user additions, though 14 million in June, reaching 678 million after witnessing a sharp drop of 11.2 million in April, followed by a recovery of 7.3 million in May. Such MBB users now represent 70.8% of the total active users in the market, having risen continuously from 59% in June 2019.
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