Bharti Airtel vs Reliance Jio vs Vodafone Idea: Know the current numbers

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released its monthly data on subscribers (subs) for Jan’21. Industry-active subs rose 3.3mn with Bharti Airtel net add strong at 6.9mn subs; Reliance Jio lost 3.4mns subs which explains its renewed aggression to push JioPhone. Vodafone fared well with a subs dip of only 0.3mn. Mobile broadband subs addition stood at 9.8mn with highest addition again for Bharti Airtel at 5.5 mn.

Bharti Airtel’s Mobile broadband subs market share rose 70bps to 28% on an active basis, while Reliance Jio’s dipped 90bps to 50.1%. In the past 12 months, Bharti’s subs addition has outpaced Reliance Jio in active and Mobile Broadband. Bharti Airtel share price today is Rs 526, up Rs 3 or 0.6% and Vodafone Idea share price today is Rs 10, up Rs 0.1 or 1%. 

Industry-active subscribers rose 3.3 mn:

Industry-active subscribers base expanded 3.3 mn to 979 mn (up 0.3% MoM and dip 0.8% YoY), which was helped by very strong total subscribers addition of 9.6 mn or 0.8% MoM. RJio’s active subscribers dipped 3.4 mn to 325 mn in Jan '21. Its subscribers decline was due to a 120 bps dip in active subs as % (of total base) to 79% in Jan’20 vs 80.2% in Dec’20. Total subscribers addition was muted at 2 mn to 411 mn. Bharti Airtel’s active subscribers rose 6.9mn to 336mn, most of which was driven by total subscribers net adds, thus, indicating the improving quality of subscribers addition.

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Vodafone Idea’s active subscribers decline has significantly decelerated; it fell only 0.3mn (vs average 3.4 mn in the past 12 months), resulting in an active subs base of 256mn in Jan '21. Total subscribers base has started growing with a net add of 1.7 mn. Reliance Jio’s active subscribers market share dipped 50bps to 33.2% MoM, while Bharti Airtel’s stood at 34.3% (up 60 bps MoM) and Vodafone Idea dipped 10bps MoM to 26.2%.

Bharti Airtel is widening its lead in VLR subscribers market share against Reliance Jio. In the past 12 months, RJio has added active subscribers; this compared to Bharti Airtel’s net subscribers add on VLR and mobile broadband was 22.8 mn and 39.4 mn, respectively. For Reliance Jio, active subscribers and mobile broadband subscribers (active) are the same.

Reliance Jio’s wired broadband subscription was steady at 0.18 mn to 2.3 mn:

Wired broadband subscription net addition came in at 0.38 mn MoM to 22.7 mn (1.7% MoM and 18.8% YoY growth) in Jan '21. Reliance Jio’s market share improved to 9.9% (up 60 bps MoM), and net add stood at 0.18mn. Bharti Airtel’s net add is slowly inching up at 0.09 mn, and market share improved marginally to 12.8% (up 20bps MoM). Others (local service providers) continued to lead net adds at 0.11 mn in Jan '21.