Airtel Beats Jio In Active Users: 37 Lakh Users Joined Airtel, 21 Lakh Left Jio

According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) data analyzed by Motilal Oswal, as of June 2020, Bharti Airtel has added 37 lakh active subscribers and at the same time, Jio lost 21 lakh active users.

The most affected was Vodafone Idea (Vi) who lost 37 lakh active subscribers.

Read on to find out more…

Are Users Switching From Jio, Vi To Airtel?

Motilal Oswal said in a note, “Bharti Airtel regained the top spot in the active mobile subscriber market in June after losing it to Jio in May.”

The latest TRAI data indicated that 98.14% of Airtel’s users were active, while only 89.49% and 78.15% of users were active for Vi and Jio respectively.

Airtel’s active mobile user base has increased from 30.7 crores to 31.1 crores in June. On the other hand, Jio’s user count has declined from 31.3 crores to 31 crores and Vi’s user base has shrunk from 27.7 crores to 27.3 crores. 

What Is The Reason Behind Users Switching Network Providers?

The broker said that the industry witnessed 28 lakh active subscriber churn in June to reach 95.8 lakh after gaining 29 lakh active subscribers in May.

Although, Vi and Jio’s shrinking numbers were partly balanced out by Airtel’s active user additions.

According to analysts Vi’s continuous loss of users is mainly due to its weak network capabilities. Also, the huge outstanding adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues have in turn posed questions on the telco’s business continuity. 

Reliance Jio the New Telco King of Rural India?

Beating Vi, Jio has now witnessed a growth in the rural user base. For the first time, Jio’s mobile user base grew to 16.634 crores in June as opposed to Vi’s 16.602 crores.

Owing to the easing of COVID-19 resultant lockdown’s restrictions and users still digesting last December’s price hike, Jio added almost 45 lakh, mobile users, in June, taking the mobile users to 39.7 crores. 

Although Airtel’s total user base shrunk by 11.2 lakh in June and Vi has suffered the most as its gross subscriber base fell by 48 lakh.

This has yanked the country’s overall mobile user base lower by 32 lakh to 140 crores.