Reliance Jio And Bharti Airtel Witness Increase In Wireless User Numbers While Vodafone Idea Loses Its Subscribers: TRAI Report

Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel reported consistent wireless customer increases in November 2021, mostly at the expense of Vodafone Idea (Vi), which continued to lose customers, unable to overcome the impact of late-July base prepaid rate hikes.

According to the latest subscriber data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on 18 January, Reliance Jio added 2.01 million wireless subscribers in November last year, bringing its total mobile user base to 428.61 million, while Bharti Airtel's increased by 1.31 million to 355.29 million.

In November, however, Vodafone Idea (Vi) lost almost 1.89 million users, bringing its overall mobile user base to 267.12 million, demonstrating the cash-strapped telco's incapacity to effectively compete with its two financially stronger rivals.

As per Economic Times, analysts believe Jio's better performance on the client acquisition front was aided in part by the Diwali introduction of its new 4G smartphone, JioPhone Next, which was co-developed with Google.

In the report, TRAI noted: “Total wireless subscribers increased from 1,166.30 million at the end of October-21 to 1,167.50 million at the end of November-21, thereby registering a monthly growth rate of 0.10 per cent.”

“Wireless subscription in urban areas increased from 637.44 million at the end of October-21 to 638.46 million at the end of November-21, and wireless subscription in rural areas also increased from 528.86 million to 529.04 million during the same period,” it added.

Reliance Jio and Airtel both increased their rural mobile customer bases to 185.89 million and 171.32 million, respectively, while Vodafone Idea has fallen to 135.29 million at the end of November.

According to TRAI, in terms of ‘Access Service Provider-wise Market Shares in term of Wireless Subscribers as on 30 November’, both Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel have slightly widened their customer market shares to 36.71 per cent and 30.43 per cent respectively in that month while Vodafone Idea and BSNL narrowed to 22.88 per cent and 9.70 per cent.

In November, the Visitor Location Register (VLR), a crucial indicator showing the number of active customers on a mobile network, revealed that 97.92 per cent of Bharti Airtel users, 86.69 per cent of Vodafone Idea users and 83.9 per cent of Jio users were active.