Reliance Jio Surpasses Bharti Airtel to Become Second Biggest Telco in the Country

The Mukesh Ambani led telecom operator Reliance Jio has registered another feat in the telecom industry as it has surpassed Bharti Airtel to become the second biggest telecom operator in the country by subscriber base as per an ET Telecom report. About two and a half year later since the launch of its services in the country, the telco has managed to beat Airtel by amassing 306 million subscribers, whereas Airtel currently has 284 million subscribers. Now Reliance Jio remains only behind the telecom giant, Vodafone Idea which has 387 million subscribers as per the data compiled in December 2018.

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Vodafone Idea Now in a Vulnerable Position

An official spokesperson of Bharti Airtel had confirmed its numbers after TOI had sent a query to the company inquiring about the subscriber numbers. If the analysts are to be believed, then given Reliance Jio’s growth rate, we might see it crossing Vodafone Idea in terms of subscribers to become the largest telecom company in India in the coming quarters. The analyst said, “Vodafone-Idea is the most vulnerable of the three private players in the market, and it may just be a matter of few more quarters, maybe three-four before it is overtaken by Jio.”

The journey for Airtel since the launch of the new telco in 2016 has been a tough one. The Sunil Bharti Mittal led telecom operator used to be the top telco in the country until it was surpassed by the merger of the second and third place telecom operators, Vodafone Idea which made the biggest telecom company of India. With this new revelation, Bharti Airtel has now slipped on the third spot. The massive rise of Reliance Jio can be attributed to the dirt-cheap tariff plans and the fact that the company landed in the market with free voice calling and data plans.