Tariff hikes prompt 7 mn to switch off phones in April
NEW DELHI: Bharti Airtel Ltd, Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd, and Vodafone Idea Ltd lost active subscribers in April, the second time in a decade that all telecom operators reported such losses.
Telcos lost 7 million active subscribers in April, the sharpest decline in the past 10 months, as users switched off second phone connections amid rising tariffs, analysts said. The last time all operators lost subscribers was in April 2020 after the pandemic-induced nationwide lockdown.
“A continuation of this trend could indicate Sim-consolidation amid rising tariffs,” analysts at Jefferies said in a note to clients based on subscriber data released by the telecom regulator. Active subscribers are users that made at least one phone call or text or reported data activity in the past month.
All operators witnessed an active subscriber decline in April; however, Jio’s decline was the lowest at 100,000 users, while Bharti and Vodafone Idea lost 3.1 million and 3. 8 million active subscribers, respectively, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (Trai’s) data for April released on Thursday showed.
However, the subscriber base reported by operators rose by 600,000 in April, led by Jio, which added 1.7 million users for a total of 406 million, and Bharti Airtel, which added 800,000 subscribers to take the total to 361 million. On the other hand,
Vodafone Idea’s reported subscriber base declined by 1.6 million to 259 million. As a result, the number of active users stood at 93% or 377.6 million for Jio, 98% or 353.7 million for Bharti and 86% or 222.7 million for Vodafone Idea.
Overall, Jio’s subscriber addition momentum improved month-on-month, whereas Bharti’s strong momentum from earlier months seems to have slowed in April, Navin Killa, a managing director at UBS, said in a note on the sector.
UBS added that Jio remained the market leader, with a subscriber market share of 35.5%, a 10 basis points increase from the previous month, followed by Bharti Airtel with a 31.6% share. Vodafone Idea ended April with a 22.7% market share. One basis point is 0.01%.
With Jio’s inactive subscribers being steady at 24-27 million over February-april, analysts said the telco’s subscriber cleanup has ended, which could drive higher reported subscriber additions for Jio in the future.