Reliance Jio Added Wireless Customers in all Circles Except One in May 2023

Reported by Tanay Singh Thakur August 6th, 2023 at 01:30 pm

At the end of May 2023, in terms of market share in the wireless users segment, Jio was at the top with 38.17% share, Airtel was at the second with 32.57% share, Vodafone Idea at the third with 20.20% share, and BSNL at the bottom with 8.88% share.

Highlights

Reliance Jio continues to add wireless subscribers at a rapid pace.
According to the latest TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) report, Jio added wireless customers in all circles except for one in May 2023.
Jio lost wireless subscribers in the West Bengal circle.

Reliance Jio continues to add wireless subscribers at a rapid pace. According to the latest TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) report, Jio added wireless customers in all circles except for one in May 2023. Jio lost wireless subscribers in the West Bengal circle. In April 2023, Jio's subscribers in the circle were 22,921,038 or 22.92 million, but that number came marginally down by 1,587 subscribers to 22,919,451 or 22.91 million users.

Overall, Jio's wireless subscriber base went up by 3.03 million users during May 2023. At the same time, Airtel added 1.32 million users, while Vodafone Idea (Vi) and BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited) lost 2.81 million and 1.47 million wireless users. Jio was also ahead of its competitors in adding the most wireline subscribers during the month. Read about that from the link below.

At the end of May 2023, in terms of market share in the wireless users segment, Jio was at the top with 38.17% share, Airtel was at the second with 32.57% share, Vodafone Idea at the third with 20.20% share, and BSNL at the bottom with 8.88% share. BSNL is expected to regain some lost market share once it launches 4G.

When it came to active susbscribers, Jio added 4.9 million active users during the month. It is a healthy addition compared to the competitors. Airtel added 2.37 million active users during the month. As for Vodafone Idea and BSNL, these two players lost active users to the tune of 1.99 million and 0.49 million.

However, the recently launched Jio Bharat Phone platform is likely going to accelerate subscriber addition for Jio. While that would add to the huge numbers of Jio, it wouldn't help much with improving the average revenue per user (ARPU) figure. Jio's ARPU was Rs 180.5 at the end of Q1 FY24, while its competitor Airtel's ARPU reached Rs 200.

Without a meaningful tariff hike, it would be hard for Jio to take its ARPU higher and beat that of Airtel. Airtel's prepaid plans are about 20% to 25% more expensive than Jio's offerings, thus, a difference in the ARPU will always exist between the two telcos where Airtel's ARPU is likely always going to be higher.