Jio Lost 93 Lakh Customers In 30 Days, Airtel Added 7.1 Lakh New Users | Bu Jio Is Still #1 Telco In India

Data released by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) showed that Airtel was the sole telco to add subscribers in January, gaining 714,199 users to close with 356.5 million subscribers.

Jio lost 9.3 million users to end the month with 406.4 million subscribers.

It had lost 13 million subscribers in the previous month.

However, this is not necessarily bad news. 

Jio Cutting Off Dormant Subscribers

The company has been actively weeding out dormant or non-paying subscribers from its network, which is getting reflected in the subscriber loss figures.

As a result its active subscriber market share has continuously improved in the past five months despite losing over 37 million subscribers while Airtel added over 2 million in the same period.

The telco also crossed 90% in active subscriber rate – the number of users with an active subscription- for the first time in its history.

The rate lingered at under 80% for a long time.

Active Subscriber Base

Airtel enjoyed the maximum rate of active subscriber base at 98.18%

MTNL had the least active subscriber base at 18.37%.

As already mentioned, Jio’s active subscriber base stood at 90.68% while the proportion for Vodafone Idea stood at 86.3%.

Vodafone Idea lost another 389,082 users to close at 265.1 million.

Wireless Subscribers- Urban And Rural

Wireless subscribers in the country declined to 1,145.24 million this January from 1,154.62 million at the end of December 202, a drop of 0.81%.

Wireless subscriptions in urban areas saw a decline to 627.12 million at the end of January from 633.34 million at the end of December.

Those in rural areas also decreased from 521.28 million to 518.13 million during the same period.

Private Telcos

Private service providers held 89.76% market share of the wireless subscribers.

Among the private telcos, Jio held the largest market share at 35.49%, followed by Bharti Airtel (31.13%), and Vodafone Idea (23.15%).

Public Telcos

PSUs BSNL and MTNL collectively held a market share of only 10.24% at the end of January.

BSNL had the highest share of 9.95% while MTNL held only 0.28% share.

ARPU

Average revenue per user (ARPU), a key metric of profitability, has increased for all carriers post tariff hikes.

Airtel recorded the highest Arpu of ?163 in the December quarter followed by Jio at ?158 and Vodafone Idea at ?115.

A second round of tariff hike is expected in the fiscal year starting 1 April.