Reliance Jio’s latest subscriber gains place it ever closer behind India’s second and third largest operators, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular.
Data from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) show that the disruptive operator gained a further 9.7 million subscribers in June 2018, an increase of 4.7% that pushed its total base up to 215 million. This represents an 18.78% share of the market, less than one percentage point behind the respective shares of Vodafone and Idea (19.43% and 19.24%).
Since Jio’s launch of nationwide 4G services in September 2016, India has seen a spate of consolidation in its telecoms sector. Idea and Vodafone are merging to create a new market leader, and recently received the final clearance necessary for this from India’s Department of Telecommunications.
For the month of June, Idea saw a 3% increase in subscribers, taking its total to 221 million, while Vodafone reached 223 million with an additional 275,000 subscribers. Market leader Bharti Airtel retained its 30% market share despite gaining a fairly low 11,000 subscribers. State operator BSNL saw modest growth with a further 244,000 subscribers, taking it to 113 million in total. Overall, the country gained a further 15.5 million subscribers, meaning it now has 1.15 billion.
