RJio's Dec user additions impacted by farmers' protest, say analysts

The drop in Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd's subscriber addition in December was on account of the loss of subscribers in Haryana and Punjab, as protests by farmers took a toll on the company in these two states, analysts said.

The Mukesh Ambaniowned firm lost 0.5 mln and 1.6 mln subscribers in Haryana and Punjab, respectively, which led to a net addition of only 0.5 mln users during the month.

While the muted subscriber addition was along expected lines after the OctDec earnings, the extent of subscriber losses in Punjab and Haryana - the two states impacted the most by the ongoing farmers' protests - was surprising, brokerage house JM Financial said in a note.

Farmers from the two states have been at the forefront of protests against the new farm laws that were approved by Parliament in September.

The protestors, who have been agitating since November, mainly at the borders of Delhi, say the new laws will aid big corporates such as Reliance Industries Ltd, the parent company of Reliance Jio.

According to reports, soon after the protests started, Realince Jio started receiving port-out requests from customers.

While announcing its earnings for the quarter ended December, the company had said it saw high subscriber churn during the quarter due to "malicious and motivated campaigns against Reliance Group in select geographies".

Rivals have, however, denied these allegations. JM Financial said that historically, it had not seen such sharp subscriber losses in the two states for Reliance Jio, and so the losses in Punjab and Haryana could largely be attributed to the protests.

Reliance Jio's net subscriber addition of 4.6 mln in Oct-Dec was the lowest since it was launched, Nomura said.

But Reliance Jio's active subscriber addition of 3.2 mln in December was higher than the overall subscriber addition for the second month in a row, analysts said.