Jio Continues To Lose Its Active Subscribers!

In February, 11.68 million mobile number portability (MNP) requests were witnessed, which was slightly higher than the normal monthly operation rate of 8 million. After analyzing the data, it seems that Bharti has already acquired subscribers from Jio and Vodafone Idea through the MNP route.

What’s actually happening with Jio

Although Reliance Jio added the largest number of wireless users in February and surpassed Bharti Airtel six months later, the company’s active user base continued to decline, losing 200,000 users.

In November last year, Jio’s active user market was 33.5%, slightly higher than Bharti Airtel’s 33.4%, and the company has been lagging behind. In the past three months, Jio’s active user market share has fallen to 33% as of February, while Airtel’s market share has risen to 34.6%.

According to ICICI Securities, this is the first time Reliance Jio’s active users have fallen for two consecutive months since the commercial launch.

ICICI Securities said: In the past 12 months, RJio has added 12 million active users; compared with Bharti’s active and mobile broadband net subscribers, which are 25.1 million and 41.6 million, respectively. For Jio, active users and mobile broadband users (active) are the same.

According to data shared by the Indian Telecommunications Authority (Trai), Vodafone Idea successfully added wireless users in February after nearly 16 months, but the company also continued to lose active users.

The company lost 200,000 active users, and its market share of active user base dropped to 26.1%. As of February, Bharti had the highest number of active users at 340 million, followed by Jio (324 million) and Vodafone Idea (256 million).

The active subscriber or (VLR) visitor location register is a temporary database of users who have roamed in a specific area served by the operator.

In addition, February witnessed 11.68 million mobile number portability (MNP) requests, slightly higher than the normal monthly operation rate of 8 million. After analyzing the data, it appears that Bharti has acquired subscribers from Jio and Vodafone Idea through the MNP route.

But analysts said that March is going a good time for Jio, which will add about 8.6 million wireless users, mainly because of the launch of the new JioPhone 2021 discount plan and long-term plan. The company will offer JioPhone at a price of Rs 1,999 and provide unlimited service for 24 months. Another plan is 1,499 rupees, which can enjoy 12 months of unlimited service.

According to Kotak Institutional Equities, in the mobile broadband sector, Bharti’s subscriber growth trajectory remains healthy, as Bharti’s subscribers increased by 3.5 million in February, albeit slightly lower than Jio’s 4.3 million.

However, on the cumulative basis of the past six months, Bharti’s mobile broadband subscribers have increased by 28.8 million, surpassing Jio’s 12.3 million subscribers. Vodafone Idea continues to fall behind in this area, adding 600,000 mobile broadband subscribers in February and 3.4 million subscribers in the past six months.