TELCOS’ ADD 5.6 MILLION ACTIVE USERS IN MARCH; HIGHEST IN 1 YEAR

Telecom service providers saw a surge in active subscribers in March, adding 5.6 million new users, the highest in a year, according to a data from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).

The addition was led by market leader Reliance Jio, which added 3.6 million active users during the month, its highest in 10 months. The company’s active subscriber base was at 430.4 million at the end of March. 

Airtel added 2.8 million active users, taking its total active user base to 385.4 million, according to the data. However, Vodafone Idea lost 579,789 active subscribers, reducing its total active user base to 193.3 million. BSNL also witnessed a dip, losing 164,375 active users, bringing its base to 48 million.

With this, the total active user base across the telecom operators was at 1.057 billion, compared to 1.052 billion in February, the Trai data showed. The proportion of active wireless subscribers was approximately 90.75% of the total wireless subscriber base of 1.165 billion as of March end.

An increasing count of active subscribers assume significance at a time when telecom service providers are preparing for next leg of telecom tariff hikes. According to analysts, the numbers will give confidence to telcos to rollout the tariff hikes to increase their average revenue per user (Arpu) as well as improve return on capital employed (ROCE). 

The active subscriber data is according to the peak visitor location register, which shows the number of active users, including those roaming on a mobile operator’s network.

In the overall mobile users additions, Jio continues to lead the competition for two years now. As of March end, the company’s mobile user base was at 469.7 million, a month-on-month increase of 2.1 million. The company’s market share was rose to to 40.3% from 40.15% in February. However, the pace of subscriber additions for Jio slowed down during March and its addition was lowest in last one year.

Analysts said the company is benefitting mostly from the churn of users by Vodafone Idea and BSNL, and 2G to 4G migration.

Bharti Airtel added 1.75 million mobile users in March, taking its base to 385.7 million. The company’s mobile subscriber market share rose to 33.10% from 32.97% in February.

Vodafone Idea lost subscribers for the 36th straight month in February. The telecom operator lost 684,530 users, taking its total base to 219.8 million. The company’s subscriber market share in March fell to 18.86% from 18.93% in February.

BSNL lost 2.35 million users, its highest monthly subscriber loss till date. 

The state-owned telecom operator lost subscribers for the 27th straight month and its subscriber base was at 88 million. Its market share fell to 7.57% from 7.78% in February, according to Trai data.

With regard to 4G/5G, the three private telecom operators net added 6.75 million subscribers, Trai data showed. As of March end, a total of 883.2 million 4G/5G subscribers were there in the country for the three telecom operators. Vodafone Idea is yet to launch 5G.

Bharti Airtel added 3.47 million 4G/5G users in March, taking its 4G/5G subscriber base to 265.5 million. Vodafone Idea added 1.14 million 4G subscribers, taking its base to 127.69 million. Notably, all Jio users are either on 4G or 5G.

According to Trai, in March, 11.44 million subscribers submitted their requests for Mobile Number Portability (MNP). “With this, the cumulative MNP requests increased from 951.09 million at the end of February to 962.53 million at the end of March, since implementation of MNP,” Trai said.

2024-05-03T23:09:59Z dg43tfdfdgfd