The two struggling telecom operators in India, Vodafone Idea (Vi) and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) have disappointed yet again in August 2021. As per the monthly performance report shared by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), Vodafone Idea lost close to a million subscribers (833,549 subscribers) in August. At the same time, the state-run telco lost around 60,439 subscribers. Vodafone Idea losing a ton of subscribers in a single month is not at all surprising. Many analysts believe that the telco’s subscriber churn rate will be higher because it had removed the base plan of Rs 49 and the low paying users were forced to opt for the Rs 79 plan at least.
Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio Added New Users
Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio added new subscribers during the same month. Reliance Jio added 649,754 subscribers while Bharti Airtel added 138,132 subscribers. As per the TRAI data, both the telcos had close to a similar number of active users. Bharti Airtel’s 97.92% of the subscriber base was active while Reliance Jio’s active subscriber base stood at 79% of the total subscribers which is a huge difference. Airtel had a total of 346.84 million active subscribers in August 2021 while Jio had 350.63 million active subscribers. In comparison, Vodafone Idea’s 87.24% of the total subscriber base was active while BSNL’s 49.99% of the total subscriber base was active. For Vodafone Idea, the active subscriber base stood at 236.49 million users in August and for BSNL the total active subscriber base was 57.15 million users. Reliance Jio still has a long way to go when it comes to active subscribers. Airtel can potentially garner a larger revenue market share in the medium term if it can covert its legacy network users into 4G users. Jio’s plus point is that it only has 4G subscribers. With more 4G subscribers, Bharti Airtel will be able to boost its average revenue per user (ARPU).
