Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea (Vi) are the major postpaid mobile players in India. Reliance Jio likely doesn't have half the number of postpaid mobile subscribers that Airtel and Vi have. Since Jio doesn't report its postpaid user count in the annual or quarterly report, it's hard for us to pinpoint an exact number, but two years back, the number was not even 5 million. This was a time when Jio had a Rs 199 postpaid plan. CLSA had said in 2022 that Jio has the poorest postpaid mobile subscriber base amongst the private telcos, and since the company refrains from giving out a number, that is still likely the case.
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But there are two telecom companies that disclose their postpaid numbers - Airtel and Vi. These two are fighting head-on to be the number one postpaid mobile services provider in India. Back in 2022, and for a few years now, Vi was leading the figures here. But now, Airtel has taken over Vi to become the telco with the largest postpaid mobile subscriber base.
Airtel and Vi Postpaid Subscriber Base
At the end of Q2 FY25, Airtel had 24.66 million postpaid mobile users, while Vi had 24.5 million users. So the difference between the two companies is negligible at this point. However, Airtel has been growing its postpaid mobile user base aggressively. Postpaid mobile subscribers are more loyal than prepaid users and are also less affected by price changes.
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These are high-paying customers and adding more postpaid users will help the telcos improve their ARPU (average revenue per user) figure. Reliance Jio's strategy in the postpaid segment is unclear. The telco has competitive plans but hasn't been able to compete with Airtel and Vi in the segment. With Vi expected to launch 5G soon, its postpaid subscriber base could grow from here. The battle of postpaid users will be interesting to note in the coming quarters.
