Reliance Jio, in a surprising turn of events, lost active subscribers in November 2022. The telco, which has been mostly ahead in adding subscribers while seeing overall growth in the wireless subscriber base, lost nearly 2 million active users in Nov. The data was published by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in its monthly telecom performance report. This means that 5G isn't really a deciding factor for customers right now. Jio is present in close to 200 cities with its 5G networks today, and it was also present in several cities in November 2022. Despite that, Jio lost active users. At the same time, Airtel added active users, and it was rolling out 5G at a relatively slower pace than Jio.
Read More - Bharti Airtel Leads 4G Subscriber Net Additions in Nov: MOFSL
This indicates that rolling out faster 5G isn't going to make much difference in the performance of the telecom operators in the short term. Right now, Indian subscribers want good quality services, not even necessarily the most affordable. Jio is affordable, yes, but not by a very huge margin. Thus, the customers would mostly shift to the telco, which offers the best services. According to Opensignal's October 2022 report, Airtel was ahead of Jio and Vodafone Idea in delivering the best quality video experience and more.
Why Did Jio Lose Active Customers?
Wireless subscribers don't use mobile networks just for calling anymore. Now, more than ever, mobile networks are very important to deliver a consistent experience because users rely a lot upon mobile networks for streaming OTT (over-the-top) content, playing multiplayer games, and more. Did Jio lose active users because it wasn't ahead of Airtel in these areas? We can't say for sure, but yes, it is a point to consider.
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One more thing to note here is that Jio's 5G rollout and delivery of it to customers is starkly different from what Airtel is doing. Customers could be disappointed that to use Jio's 5G; they would have to wait for an invite. However, no such restriction is there for Airtel users. Airtel users can just use 5G at no additional cost if they are 4G subscribers. They don't have to wait for any sort of invite.
Reliance Jio's average revenue per user (ARPU) per month is also growing at a very slow pace QoQ (quarter on quarter). The telco does make the most profits, but its performance growth is slowing down, which the investors in Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) wouldn't like. There's also an Initial Public Offer (IPO) of Jio scheduled in the near future. All these things could hurt the response that the telco gets in the IPO.
