Reliance Jio pips rivals, adds over 9.71 million subscribers in June

Reliance Jio Infocomm continued to steal a march over older carriers by sustaining its strong customer expansion momentum, adding over 9.71 million users in June, taking its subscriber base well past 215 million.

Market leader Bharti Airtel, by comparision, added a paltry 10,689 customers in June while No 2 carrier, Vodafone India added 0.27 million amid continuing price wars with Jio. Third-largest, Idea Cellular, which is merging with Vodafone India to create the country’s largest telco, however, notched up the strongest customer gains among the older carriers, adding over 6.36 million subscribers, as per data released by the telecom regulator Monday.

Mukesh Ambani-controlled Jio and Idea have recorded market share gains to 18.78% (18.7%) and 19.24% (18.94%) over the previous month respectively, while Bharti Airtel and Vodafone India have seen marginal declines on this metric to 30.05% (30.46%) and 19.43% (19.67%) respectively, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) data showed.

Sunil Mittal-led Bharti Airtel, however, retained its position as India’s biggest telco with 344.56 million subscribers, while 4G rival Jio’s customer base has swelled to 215.25 million. Idea and Vodafone India’s customer bases, in turn, have grown to 220.59 million and 222.73 million respectively in June.



Bharti Airtel had added nearly 36 million customers in May following the integration of its recently acquired Telenor India operation with itself.

State-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) reported 0.24 million customer additions, indicating a flattish market share growth at 9.87%.

Fringe players such as Tata Teleservices and Reliance Communications lost 1 million and 0.1 million customers respectively in June.

Visitor Location Register, a key metric reflecting the number of active subscribers on a mobile network, indicated that 99.77% of the users were active for Airtel, 93.47% for Vodafone India, 92.19% for Idea and 58.43% for BSNL.

Data collated by the sector regulator showed that the total base of phone subscribers rose to 1,168.89 million in end-June from 1,153.51 million in end-May, reflecting 1.33% monthly growth.