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Andrew Bonwick
Vice President of Product Development at Relm Insurance
Madhav Sheth
CEO of Ai+ Smartphone
Stephen Rose
CEO Render Networks
The telecom industry is in a tricky position right now. There are a few telecom companies that are fighting for the top spot, whereas others are busy carving their name in the survival list of the companies. We need not go into details of who’s who of this industry as that remains pretty much clear to anyone who’s been following the news headlines. However, what seems to be happening between Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio is not only a rigorous competition of numbers but also a competition of quality, service, and retention. The telecom industry is guided by a few numerics, which include the Average Revenue Per User, easily the topmost chased metric in the telecom world, followed by subscriber base. However, one metric that has been often overlooked is active subscribers. But, now it seems with small spikes in ARPU and subscribers creating a massive ripple effect, this metric is more important than ever.
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Top Spot of Active Subscribers Held by Bharti Airtel
As per the latest data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the Mukesh Ambani-led telecom company leads in the subscriber numbers, but when it comes to active subscribers, Bharti Airtel is at the top spot. Bharti Airtel currently boasts of having 346.95 million active subscribers, whereas Reliance Jio has 335.17 million active subscribers, almost 11 million less than the Sunil Bharti Mittal led telco. The situation that both the telcos are in is not new but has been persisting since the December of 2020. Also, it should not be mistaken as a mere coincidence but a carefully crafted and desired position by Bharti Airtel.
What Did Airtel Do Right?
Sunil Bharti Mittal and other execs in many interviews since 2019 and in 2020 have expressed that Bharti Airtel has always been seeking “high paying” customers rather than a huge volume of subscribers, which were low paying. At the same time, Reliance Jio’s strategy has been quite the opposite. With the launch of JioPhone, the Mukesh Ambani-led telco went after rural customers with cheap plans which were specifically targeted for this user base.
