Telecom Sector Updste: Active subscriber base stabilizes in Jun`22 By Motilal Oswal Financial Services
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) released its subscriber data for Jun’22. Below are the key highlights:
* Industry gross subscriber growth continued with 1.9m additions MoM (2.8m in May’22), following a series of flattish growth and decline over Oct’22-Apr’22. The MoM growth indicated a recovery from the churn witnessed due to tariff hikes. While subscriber adds in Rjio sustained, VIL continued to lose subscribers (down 1.8m MoM) in Jun’22.
* Active subscriber base, however, remained flattish MoM with a marginal decline of 0.1m to 1,018m, after witnessing healthy additions of 3.9m in May’22. Bharti added 2.4m subscribers MoM, while VIL witnessed a subscriber erosion of 1.4m. RJio’s subscriber base remained flat on a MoM basis in Jun’22.
* Bharti posted 0.8m gross subscriber additions MoM (v/s 1.0m adds in May’22). Active subscriber base improved to 357m as the company continued to add 2.4m subscribers on a MoM basis (v/s 2.2m in May’22), marginally lower than its average addition of 3-4m in FY21. Hence, its active subscriber share improved 20bp to 35.1%; 4G subscriber adds stood at 2.2m to 215m (v/s 1.9m in May’22)
* RJio’s gross subscriber base continued to improve with 4.2m additions (v/s 3.1m in May’22), the best among its peers. The company’s active subscriber base, however, remained flattish with a mere 0.8m decline. Active subscriber share, therefore, remained at 37.7% for Jun’22
* VIL continued to see gross/active subscriber declines of 1.8m/1.4m MoM (v/s 0.8m/2.3m in May’22) to 257m/219m, respectively. Its 4G subscriber base too turned red (down 0.3m MoM), after recording an addition of 1.2m in May’22.
* 4G subscribers: Industry-wide, the pace of 4G subscriber additions continued its momentum with healthy additions of 5.6m to 771m (5.7m adds in May’22). RJio continued to lead with 4.2m adds; Bharti continued its recovery trend by adding 2.2m subscribers in Jun’22 while VIL saw a decline of 0.3m after witnessing 1.2m subscriber additions in May’22.
* The number of wired broadband subscribers for the industry grew 0.6m to 28.7m in Jun’22. RJio/Bharti added 0.11m/0.27m subscribers, while BSNL’s subscriber base remained flat at 3.8m
