Reliance Jio is aggressively expanding its subscriber base in India. The telco giant has added 6.5 million subscribers in January 2020. Even though Reliance Jio increased the tariff back in December 2019, subscribers accepted the increase rates and opted for the services of Reliance Jio. Talking about Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, Airtel added 0.85 million users, whereas Vodafone Idea lost 3.62 million customers. As per the latest telco subscriber data released by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), January user base of Reliance Jio was 376.67 million subscribers whereas Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea user base were 328.15 million and 328.98 million respectively.
The largest telecom operator of India Reliance Jio has a massive number of subscribers in a short period. The telco giant has whopping 388 million subscribers in the fourth fiscal quarter whereas Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea has still not disclosed their March quarter numbers. However, talking about the fiscal third quarter, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea reported a subscriber base of 283.04 million and 304 million respectively.
Trai also revealed that Visitor Location Register (VLR) which is one of the critical factors in determining the number of active subscribers in telecom network showed that Bharti Airtel had 95.7 % active users whereas Vodafone Idea and Reliance Jio had 90.36 % and 82.26 % active users. It is surprising that even after having the most extensive subscriber base, Reliance Jio has less active users as compared to Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel.
Telco Subscriber data released by Trai also revealed that market share of Reliance Jio increased to 32.56 % from 32.14 %. Telco giant Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea witnessed declined market share as compared to the previous month. Bharti Airtel’s market share dropped to 28.38 %, which was 28.43 % in last month whereas Vodafone Idea’s market share dropped from 28.89 % to 28.45 % in the current month. Trai also stated that the number of mobile users in India increased from 5 million to 1.156 billion in January month. It is also expected that mobile users in India will grow more amid the lockdown period.