Airtel, Vodafone, Idea lose market share as Reliance Jio gains over 12% in October

Key Highlights

• Jio had 14.59 crore subscribers in October 2017
• Its market share stood at 12.39%
• Rate at which Jio is adding net subscribers has slowed

Mukesh Ambani backed Reliance Jio has crossed 12% market share in the telecom sector in India in the month of October. Its net additions to wireless subscribers remained the highest in the industry at over seven lakh, as per Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) data released on Tuesday.

On the other hand, incumbent operators – Airtel, Idea Cellular and Vodafone, have lost out on wireless subscribers in this ordeal.

 
Telecom major Bharti Airtel had a total market share of 24.21% in October which was still less than August 2016 of 25.03%. However, the company has been struggling with 23% share ever since the launch of Jio.

Vodafone and Idea’s market share of subscribers has been fluctuating since the beginning of this year around the 17% and 16% mark respectively.

In October, Vodafone’s market share stood at 17.68%, while Idea’s market share was at 16.20%.

To put this in perspective, let’s look back at the operators’ market share of subscribers before the launch of Reliance Jio in September 2016.

Vodafone had a sizeable market share of 19.46% in August 2016, while Idea’s market share was at 17.19%.

Jio has quickly raced ahead with 14.59 crore subscribers in October. Vodafone had a total of 20.83 crore subscribers and Idea had 19.08 crore in the same month.

During the month of May 2017, Vodafone had touched 21 crore subscriber mark and has now declined its subscriber base.

The company also lost out in net addition to subscribers in the month of September when it had recorded -700,687 subscribers. Idea had also lost out on net addition to subscribers by over 90,000.

Idea had 19.62 crore subscribers during the April-May period this year, but has now lost out.

Airtel on the other hand had 28.51 crore subscribers in the month of October which was much higher than its August 2016 figure of 25.75 crore subscribers.

However, the rate at which Jio is adding subscribers has slowed considerably from a time when it used to add nearly 50 lakh subscribers to its network (May 2017), it has now reduced to single digit net additions.

Jio started charging for its services in April this year after 170 days of operation and doling out freebies.

Moreover, active subscribers on its network still remained around the 75% mark in October, as per TRAI data. This has been consistent since January 2017, as we earlier reported.

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