Tariff Hikes Cause Subscriber Losses for Jio, Airtel and VI, While BSNL Sees Growth

Indian telecom giants like Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea have suffered losses of customers for the third consecutive month in September after the tariff hike announced by them in July this year, according to a report by the telecom regulatory of India (TRAI). The report published on November 21 revealed a decrease in users for the three giants, while government-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL) gained users. 

In September, Jio, the leader in the Indian telecom market, lost close to 7.9 million wireless customers, followed by Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel, which witnessed a decrease of 1.5 million and 1.4 million users, respectively. On the other hand, BSNL’s user count increased by 849,493 in the same month. 

According to the TRAI report, while the private access service providers controlled 91.85 per cent market share of the wireless subscribers, the two government-run telecos BSNL and MTNL had only 8.15 per cent. 

Decrease in Users Post Tariff Hike 

The trend of declining wireless subscribers came after the tariff hike announced by the telecos in early July this year. The move was first initiated by Reliance Jio and later the same route was taken by Vi and Bharti Airtel to improve the financial health of the telecom companies. Jio increased the tariff by 12 to 25 per cent, Airtel by 11 to 21 per cent and Vi by 10 to 21 per cent across all prepaid and postpaid plans. 

Jio’s customers decreased from 471.74 million in August to 463.78 million in September. Similarly, Airtel’s users declined from 384.91 million in August to 383.48 million in September and Vodafone witnessed a loss of customers from 214 million in August to 212.45 million in September. 

The total wireless users decreased on a monthly decline rate of 0.87 per cent from 1,163.83 million in August to 1,153.72 million in September. 

While Reliance remains the largest mobile operator with around a 40.20 per cent share and Airtel and Vodafone have 33.24 per cent and 18.41 per cent market shares, respectively, in September. Due to the increase in user counts, BSNL’s market share is up to 7.98 per cent from 7.84 per cent compared to a month ago.