Airtel, Vodafone-Idea stalled user falls in Oct, Jio add 9.1 Mln: Trai

New Delhi: Mukesh Ambani -led telecom operator Reliance Jio’s subscriber base widened by 9.1 million in October 2019, accounting for a market share of 58.3% wireless broadband users, latest data by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) showed.

In the mobile broadband category, RJio, Airtel and Vodafone Idea added 9.1 million, 5.0 million and 3.6 million respectively, translating into market shares of 58.3% 20.9% and 18.5%, respectively.

In overall mobile users, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea added 0.1 million and 0.2 million respectively.

Brokerage firm Edelweiss said RJio’s numbers fell below its expectation as this was the first month entailing full impact of Jiophone sales at discounted price of Rs 699.

“We expect RJIO’s subscriber addition momentum to sustain driven by lucrative Jiophone offerings as well due to its tariffs being 20% cheaper than competitors post price hikes,” it said in a press note on Monday.

“We expect industry subscriber addition to slow down December onwards given the price hikes announced by telcos,” Edelweiss said.

The private access service providers held 89.80% market share of the wireless subscribers whereas BSNL and MTNL, the two PSU access service providers, had a market share of only 10.20%.

In the wireline category, state-owned PSUs BSNL and MTNL held 61.41% of market share as on 31st October, 2019.

Overall, the industry saw addition of 20.3 million active subscribers during the month with 14.4 million and 6.8 million addition for RJio and Bharti, respectively, and a loss of 0.7 million for Idea.