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MOSL: TELECOM-RJio, Bharti add active subs, Vodafone Idea suffers subs loss

Telecom: RJio, Bharti add active subs, Vodafone Idea suffers subs loss

 

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released subscriber data for Oct-2018. Key highlights:

• Telecom companies added 8.5m net active subscribers in Oct’18. Accordingly, the total subscription base in the country has reached 1,022m.
• RJio topped with 8.5m active subscriber addition, primarily led by Jiophone-2 flash sale. Bharti added 3.4m subscribers, bucking the previous three months’ downtrend. The company’s performance is encouraging, especially given the lingering impact of Telenor subscriber consolidation and the rollout of minimum recharge plans in three circles (Tamil Nadu, UP (W) and Punjab). Vodafone-Idea, however, lost 2.9m subscribers in the month. Notably, this is the sixth consecutive month of a decline in the company’s subscriber base.
• The industry added 14.3m broadband subscribers in Oct’18 (+17.7m in Sep’18), taking the overall subscriber base to 477m (47% of active subscriber base).
• RJio accounted for a significant ~74% share of incremental MBB subscriber adds (by the top three players). Bharti’s share stood at a meager 15% (does not account for switch from 3G to 4G), while Vodafone-Idea accounted for 11%.