A month after all the three major telecom operators such as Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio, and Vodafone Idea (Vi) raised tariffs, the overall industry subscriber base, per data shared by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), declined by 0.9 million, which is the first decline since April 2023. This, per JM Financial, was due to sim consolidation in the lower ARPU segment on account of 15-17 per cent tariff hike announced during the first week of Jul’24 by all 3 private telcos. According to Telecom Subscription Data shared by TRAI, Reliance Jio lost 758,000 subscribers in July, Vodafone Idea lost 1.4 million and Bharti Airtel lost the maximum, with nearly 1.7 million customers exiting the network during July. Meanwhile, BSNL, the only service provider that has not raised tariffs, gained 2.9 million subscribers. This was alluded to by Bharti Airetl and Vi’s managements during their recent earnings concall wherein Vodafone Idea CEO Akshaya Moondra pointed to customers moving to BSNL, while also noting that they were likely to move back to it as they were unlikely to get the 4G coverage that they’re used to at BSNL, which was not available across the country.
As of July, Jio had 475.7 million customers, Bharti Airtel had 387.3 million, Vodafone Idea had 215.8 million and BSNL had 88.5 million. Overall mobile phone users came down to 1.16 billion in July from 1.17 billion in June.
TRAI data also highlighted that mobile number portability requests increased in India in July 2024, with 13.68 million subscribers submitting their requests for Mobile Number Portability (MNP). The cumulative MNP requests increased from 997.44 million at the end of June 2024 to 1011.13 million at the end of July 2024.
Jio’s net subs decline by 0.8 million in July 2024
Jio’s net subscribers declined by 0.8 million in July 2024 after 28 consecutive months of subscribers gains, JM Financial said. Earlier, Jio had reported an even sharper net subscribers loss of 3.7million in February 202, 9.3 million in January 2022, 12.9 million in December 2021, and 19 million in September 2021 due to sim consolidation post the Nov’21 tariff hike and repurposing of customer retention efforts for low-ARPU subscribers. However, Jio’s active subscribers loss was limited at 0.2 million in July 2024. Hence, Jio’s VLR ratio improved to 92.6 per cent in July 2024 vs. 92.5 per cent in June 2024.
Mobile broadband subscriptions
Per the data shared by TRAI, the industry’s MBB (mobile broadband — 3G+4G+5G) subscriber addition continued to be at 5.3 million, and this was led by BSNL at 4.6 million subscribers and Bharti Airtel at 2.6 million subscribers, Jio and Vi registered decline of 0.8 million and 1.1 million respectively. Bharti Airtel recorded MBB subscriber addition in July 2024 after the company reported robust addition of 1.5 million- 4 million each month during Feb’22- Apr’24 (except for decline of 0.3 million in Apr’22 and muted addition of 0.5 million in Oct’23), said JM Financial. Now, Vi’s MBB subscriber base declined by 1.1 million in July 2024, which is the 8th time in the last 18 months, primarily driven by delay in its 5G rollout and 4G coverage gaps. With this, Jan’22-Jul’24 cumulatively witnessed 4.6 million rise in MBB subscribers for Vi. “Further, overall subs base fell by 1.4 million in July 2024, continuing the downward trend due to churn in lower ARPU segments given the sharp hike in entry level prepaid tariffs. Vi needs to sharply increase its capex to boost 4G coverage and capacity to drive MBB upgrades and arrest subscriber decline,” stated the JM Financial report.
FTTH additions
Going by the data shared by TRAI, Jio continued to register strong Fiber to the Home (FTTH) additions at 0.45 million, driven by its aggressive push of JioAirFiber pan India coverage in H1CY24 (JioAirFiber was available in around 5,900 cities/towns at end Q4FY24 vs. 4,000 cities at end of Q3FY24). Hence, Jio’s FTTH market share strengthened to 30.6 per cent in July 2024. Earlier during RIL’s AGM, the management had announced that JioAirFiber added its first 1 million homes in 6 months and the next 1 million homes in next 100 days, and it aims to add 1 million homes every month going forward and has reiterated its target to connect 100 million homes via FTTH and AirFiber.
Meanwhile, Bharti Airtel FTTH subscriber addition continued to witness moderate additions in July 2024, at 0.12 million, even as its market share improved slightly MoM to 19.4 per cent in July 2024 (vs. 19.2 per cent in June 2024).
BSNL’s gains
When all the three private telecom companies announced a tariff hike, BSNL kept its tariff unchanged, which worked in favour of the company. While the overall subscribers as well as well as active subscribers rose by 2.9 million, its MBB subscribers rose strongly by 4.6 million. In Q1FY25 concall, the Vi management also indicated the risk of subscribers porting out to BSNL (especially in the entry level segment) given BSNL has not hiked its tariff.
It is worth notting, however, that while BSNL is the only service provider that has not raised tariffs, it offers 4G services in limited geographies on a trial basis, with a larger 4G roll-out planned by the middle of the next year.
From: financialexpress
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