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Subscriber base consolidates; RJio leads the growth

RJio continues to add active subscribers; Bharti’s subscriber additions slows down, while the same for VIL continues to remain in the red

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) released subscriber data for Sep’21. Here are the key highlights:

* Gross subscriber base for the industry fell steeply (20.7m) to 1,166m on account of a 19m decline in RJio’s gross subscriber base due to a cleanup of inactive subscribers. However, active subscribers grew by 3.9m to 996m (2.4m additions in Aug’21).

* While active subscribers for both Bharti/VIL remained fairly flat at 347m/236m, RJio continued its strong addition of 4.7m subscribers (4.1m in Aug’21). RJio continues to lead, with an active subscriber share of 35.7% v/s 34.8% for Bharti. As a result, total VLR for RJio improved by 460bp to 83.65% in Sep’21.

* Bharti’s gross/active subscribers remained flat at 354m/347m v/s average additions of 2-3m in the last couple of months. While its gross subscriber market share improved to 30.4% v/s 29.8% in Aug’21, its active subscriber share declined by 20bp to 34.8%. 4G subscriber additions too witnessed sluggish growth and grew by 1m to 203m v/s a steady run-rate of 4m.

* VIL’s gross/active subscribers continued to decline at 1.1m/0.8m to 270m/236m, albeit at a slightly slower pace. 4G subscriber additions, which grew in May-Jun’21, declined by 1.2m.

* While gross subscribers for RJio fell steeply (19m) to 425m, it continued its lead in active subscriber additions at 4.7m to 355m, increasing its market share by 30bp to 35.7%. 4G subscribers too declined by 19m.

* 4G subscribers for the industry as a whole declined by 18.7m to 769.2m, with 4G subscribers accounting for 77.3% of active subscribers.

* Bharti’s 4G subscriber base continued to grow, albeit at a slower rate of 1.2m (4m in Aug’21), while the same for RJio/VIL declined by 19m/1.2m.

* Industry Wired Broadband subscribers remained flat, down a mere 0.1m to 24.4m. RJio/Bharti added 160k/230k subscribers, taking share from BSNL’s 440k decline.

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