Reliance Jio's foray makes Airtel lose 1.6%, Vodafone 2% subscribers in April vs August 2016: Ind-Ra

NEW DELHI: Credit rating agency India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) in its recent finding said that the new player Reliance Jio that has drawn 9.6% subscriber market pie between September and April 2017, while Bharti Airtel has lost 1.6% and UK-based Vodafone's India arm 2% share in that time frame.

"RJio gained 9.6% market share between September 2016 and April 2017. Weaker players are losing market share with the competitive play shifting to data from voice," Ind-Ra on Friday said in a statement, adding that only 4.4 million new GSM subscribers were added in April when compared to 8.3 million in March 2017.

Mumbai-based firm, in its study said that after Jio's commercial launch, market-leader Bharti Airtel and country's second-largest service operator Vodafone India lost 1.6% and 2% subscriber market share in April 2017 when compared to August 2016, a month ahead of Jio launch.


Billionaire Mukesh Ambani-owned Jio introduced disruptive 4G services in September 2016 on the back of freebies under the Jio Welcome and Jio Happy New Year offer and continued the offer for two consecutive quarters that made incumbents revenue slip with the former gaining 112.5 million subscribers by April 2017.

"Disruption will continue to impact industry revenue,” Ind-Ra associate director Tanu Sharma said, and added that monthly subscriber additions showed declining trend over March - April 2017, after posting high growth during October 2016 to February 2017 on account of Jio free offerings.

The Ind-Ra report further added that Sunil Mittal-driven Bharti reported addition of 2.85 million subscribers in April 2017 and relatively low additions were recorded by Vodafone India (0.75 million) and Idea Cellular (0.68 million) during the month.

Jio's initial tariff plans suggested possibility of an uptick in the industry average revenue per user, but its continued low pricing has put the industry revenues at risk, Sharma added.

The finding suggested that Airtel’s subscriber additions were healthy in Uttar Pradesh East, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh circles but were tepid in Delhi, Gujarat, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu in April 2017 on a month-on-month basis.

Vodafone subscribers decreased in Rajasthan, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu while No 3 player Idea Cellular lost its subscribers in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu in April this year when new rival shifted its users to Jio Prime, a paid platform.