Reliance Jio data unavailable but June subscriber additions by Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Idea lowest in H1 2017

Telecom operators added 1.98 million subscribers in June, which is not only a decline for the third consecutive month, but also the lowest in the first half of the current calendar year. The additions fell by 13% compared to May 2017 during which the telecom operators collectively added 2.27 million subscribers, latest data by industry body COAI show.

An analysis of the data shows that additions during last month are the lowest so far in the 2017 calendar year. In January this year, telcos added 5.15 million subscribers, 2.27 million (February), 5.68 million (March), 2.8 million (April) and 2.27 during May.

Industry leader Bharti Airtel led the industry tally with 2.05 million additions in June followed by Vodafone India at a close to a million subscribers, while Idea Cellular managed to add only 0.04 million subscribers during June.

As of June, Bharti is the country’s largest telecom operator with a base of 280.65 million subscribers followed by Vodafone at 211.94 million and Idea at 196.28 million subscribers. Bharti had a subscriber market share of 29.62% followed by Vodafone at 22.37% and Idea at 20.72% as of June 2017.

COAI did not provide subscriber numbers for new entrant Reliance Jio for June. It said as per Trai’s May 2017 data, Jio has 117.34 million subscribers. Also as per Trai, Jio has a subscriber-based market share of 9.94%.

IDEA Cellular Limited