Airtel remains market leader in active subscriber base

The impact of the lockdown was visible on subscriber additions for the industry in April as net additions were restricted at 2.2 million in the month against an average of 5.4 million in the last six months.

Despite Reliance Jio adding the most wireless subscribers for three straight months and having the highest user base at 427.67 million, when it comes to active subscribers, Bharti Airtel has been leading the market for five months since December 2020.

As per data shared by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, as of April, Airtel had 346.95 million active wireless subscribers, followed by Jio with 335.17 million subscribers.

In November 2020, Jio was marginally ahead of Airtel, with 324.78 million active subscribers as against 323.39 million for Airtel. Since then, Jio has added 19.38 million wireless subscribers, while Airtel has added 18.25 million. But while the active wireless subscriber base of Airtel has increased by 23.56 million during the period, Jio’s base has increased by 10.39 million.

Active subscribers or visitor location register (VLR) is a temporary database of users who have roamed in a particular area that an operator serves.

As per a report by Emkay, even after improving marginally in the previous month, Jio’s VLR proportion continued to remain weak. In the case of Airtel, VLR additions surpassed total additions for the fifth consecutive month. In addition, it maintained the leading position in VLR market share in these months. In November 2020, Jio had a 33.5% market share of active subscribers, marginally higher than Airtel’s 33.4%. But in April, Airtel had a 35% market share of active subscribers against Jio’s 34%.

The impact of the lockdown was visible on subscriber additions for the industry in April as net additions were restricted at 2.2 million in the month against an average of 5.4 million in the last six months. As per analysts, there could be a moderation in subscriber additions in May due to lockdowns, as restrictions across various states hampered production and sale of smartphones.