When it comes to wireless subscribers, the Mukesh Ambani led telecom operator, Reliance Jio has been making very rapid progress in terms of subscriber base. The telecom operator has grown its subscribers base beyond 350 million subscribers as reported by its monthly quarterly earnings sheet. In the quarter ending August 31, 2019, the Mukesh Ambani led telco reported the most number of wireless subscribers by absolute numbers. As for the largest growth by percentage terms, Bharti Airtel was the operator to make the most massive number of subscriber addition. As per the reports on the subscriber base, Reliance Jio added 3.05 million subscribers in the quarter ending August, in the same period, Bharti Airtel closely followed Reliance Jio by adding 2.76 million subscribers.
Reliance Jio Adds Most Number of Subscribers
As for the total market share of the broadband service providers, both wireless and wired broadband services, the top five service providers made up for 98.96% of the market share in the quarter ending August 31, 2019. These five operators making up close to all the broadband subscribers included Reliance Jio 348.2 million, but as reported by Reliance Jio itself, at the end of the quarter ending September 2019, the telecom operator stood beyond the 355 million mark. On the second number spot was Bharti Airtel with 126.7 million subscribers, Vodafone Idea with 111.11 million subscribers, BSNL with 21.5 million subscribers and at the end of this list was Atria Convergence Technology (ACT Fibernet) with 1.47 million subscribers. Also, the data on the subscriber base highlighted that the total broadband base in the country grew by 1.87% in the July-August period. The subscriber addition through mobile phones was 11.5 million, whereas, there was a negative growth as the broadband subscriber base declined by 20,000. After the decline, the total wired broadband subscriber base stood at 18.32 million. In the month before, this subscriber base stood at 18.52 million.
BSNL Leading the Pack With Most Wired Broadband Subscribers
When it came to wired broadband subscribers, the top five service providers were Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) with 8.79 million subscribers, Bharti Airtel with 2.41 million subscribers, ACT Fibernet with 1.47 million subscribers, Hathway Cable and Datacom with 0.85 million subscribers, and lastly You Broadband with 0.75 million subscribers. However, in this time, BSNL also witness a decline in this wired broadband subscriber base by 0.26 million. Whereas, in this period, Bharti Airtel saw an increase in its broadband subscribers by 10,000. Whereas, for the other three broadband players, there was no increase in their broadband subscribers for the period between July 2019 and August 2019.
Reliance Jio Yet to Monetise JioFiber Customers
It is worth noting that Reliance Jio’s introduction of JioFiber services has initiated a recomposition of subscriber base in the wired broadband sector. While in the wireless broadband sector, Reliance Jio continues to lead the pack among all the telecom operators, it is also causing slight changes in the wired broadband industry, albeit not in an equally intense manner. The largest wired service provider, BSNL has also been witnessing a decline in its subscribers because of the lack of attractiveness on its broadband plans, the presence of daily data limit on most of its plans and lack of freebies which Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel are providing in ample amount with their fibre plans. It is also a crucial fact that Reliance Jio has not yet started monetising its JioFiber customers as it is undergoing a billing infrastructure revamp. When Reliance Jio starts billing its fibre customers, it will have a new influx of revenue in addition to its wireless subscribers.
