The telecom industry’s active subscriber base now reaches 961 million with the addition of 2.5 million. Reliance Jio has the most active telecom subscribers as they added 4.5 million new customers last month beating Bharti Airtel who added 3.9 million while Vodafone Idea lost 1.9 million subscribers.
Motilal Oswal points out that in Nov’20 the telecom industry added 3.4 mn gross subscribers to hit a customer base of 1.15 bn (v/s just 3.2 mn on Oct 20). In the past four months, Bharti Airtel has introduced higher gross and 4G subscribers to Reliance Jio, maintaining the pattern.
The rise in Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio’s gross user base stood at 4.4 mn / 1.9 mn in Nov’20 (v/s 3.7 mn / 2.2 mn in Oct 20). Vodafone Concept lost 2.9 million subscribers in Nov’20, on the other hand (a loss of 29 million total subscribers after April 20).
After the launch of the national lockout in Mar’20, the sector has lost 5.5 mn gross subscribers cumulatively. After adding 2.5 mn subscribers in Oct’20 (still 21 mn below the peak after March 20), the active user base saw a dramatic rise of 7.5 mn to 968 mn in Nov’20 – the maximum in 13 months.
This was partly attributed to the uptick shown in economic activities. Bharti Airtel, however, continued to record high active subscriber additions with 3.9 m, and in Nov’20, Reliance Jio introduced a modest 5.4 mn subscribers.
Who has the Most Active Telecom Subscribers?
With a solid 3.9 mn active subscriber adds (v/s 3 mn additions in Oct’20), Bharti Airtel continued the momentum, touching 323 mn subscribers in Nov’20. With this, Bharti Airtel fell from its top spot inactive SMS to 33.4% share (+10bps MoM). Overall, since Mar’20, Bharti Airtel has added a record of 8.1 mn active subscribers.
4.4 mn gross subscribers (v/s 3.7 mn additions in Oct’20 and 6.8 mn combined additions after Mar 20) have been introduced by Bharti Airtel to cross 335m. The consistency of the subscribers of Bharti Airtel is expressed in its solid 4.2 mn MBB subscriber adds (v/s RJio adds 1.9 mn)-64% incremental market share of subscribers.
Inactive SMS, Reliance Jio regains top spot
1.9 mn gross subscribers were introduced by Reliance Jio (v/s 2.2 mn added in Oct’20), hitting 408 mn in Nov’20. Gross SMS consequently stood at 35.3% (flat MoM); with a 35.3% market share, it continues to hold the top position.
The monthly gross/MBB subscriber add of Reliance Jio has slowed to a run-rate of 2 mn during the last four months, with 1.9 mn additions in Nov’20 (v/s in the last fiscal average of 7 mn).
Active subscriber additions, though, were much higher at 5.4 mn (after gaining 1.1 mn in Oct 20) than total subscribers; they hit 325 mn in Nov’20. With this, Reliance Jio won the top spot with an active SMS share of 33.5 per cent (marginally leading Bharti Airtel by 10 bps).
Active Market Share
Reliance Jio and Airtel are slowly gaining active subscribers from the market while Vi is losing their subscribers.