TRAI's (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) monthly performance report for July 2022 is out. The report shows the loss in the active subscribers that all the telcos in India saw on a month-over-month basis. Compared to June, all four operators lost VLR subscribers in July 2022. Jio still maintains the lead for having the most active mobile users in India, and Airtel is in second but with the best VLR subscriber percentage.
Overall, Jio added 2.9 million users, while Airtel added 0.5 million users in July 2022. BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited) and Vodafone Idea (Vi) lost 0.8 million and 1.5 million users, respectively. MTNL (Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited) lost 0.4 million users, and now its total active subscriber base stands at 0.64 million only.
How Many Active Users Jio, Airtel, BSNL and Vi Lost and What it Means?
Jio's active user base stood at 382.17 million in July compared to 383.24 million in June 2022. Airtel's active user base came down from 357.21 million in June to 356.17 million in July. BSNL and Vi's VLR subscriber base fell from 57.78 million and 218.67 million in June to 57.27 million and 216.92 million, respectively.
What does this fall in active user base mean for the telcos? It means a negative effect on their ARPU (average revenue per user). Jio and Airtel saw their subscriber base rising, yet the subscribers that are active and are paying customers dipped. This means that their ARPU will be negatively affected. Vi and BSNL continue to lose customers, which means a negative for their overall revenues as well.
Airtel's VLR subscriber percentage has come down to 97.99%, while Jio's figure stands at 91.88%.
