Telecom operators such as Vodafone Idea, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio have just added half-million subscribers in march month. The prime reason behind the low addition in subscribers is the precautionary lockdown period imposed by the government to combat COVID-19. In regular good times, telecom operators were approximately adding three million subscribers in a single month, but the addition of new subscribers have been drastically reduced because of COVID-19 which has been declared as a global pandemic by World Health Organisation (WHO). As per a report by ET Telecom, telecom operators are fortunate enough to get half-million subscribers during the lockdown period.
Telecom Operators Stores are Empty
As the 21-day lockdown period was announced by the government, telecom operators stores footfall decreased gradually. Mobile users are not buying new SIMs. Not only this, but Mobile Number Portability (MNP) requests have also been reduced because of the communication gap between telcos and MNP service providers.
MNP Requests Have Decreased Drastically
As per the Industry experts, another major reason in the drop of new subscribers is the decreased MNP requests. Earlier, telcos were getting MNP requests in millions, but the request has been dropped by nearly 95%. Since the government has announced work from home, offices have been shut down, and employees are not operating. As per the retailers, the current situation will change once things get back to normal, and business operates in the usual pattern.
Telecom Operators Might Delay Price Hike
In other news, telecom operators like Vodafone Idea, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio might delay their price hike decision because of the COVID-19. The telcos are already facing financial distress, and massive load on networks as more people are using the internet to work from home and entertain themselves. The Indian government has already shut down the entire nation for 21 days to combat the deadly virus.
As a result, people have been forced to stay at home. The whole outbreak of the virus has decreased the spending capacity of consumers which might force the telcos to push their price hike. Also, it is expected that telcos will restructure their pricing when the threat of Coronavirus will be neutralised, and business will be back to normal.
