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RJio continues to lead in subscriber additions

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released subscriber data for Apr’23. Below are the key highlights:

* The industry-wide gross subscriber base decreased by 1m MoM (vs. 2m increase in Mar’23) to 1,143m. It has been consistently decreasing by an average of 1.2m per month for the last six months, led by VIL. VIL lost 3m subscribers, while RJio/Bharti gained 3m/0.1m subscribers in Apr’23.

* Active subscriber base increased by 4.2m MoM to 1,038m (vs. 6.7m increase in Mar’23). Bharti/RJio added 0.7m/4.7m subscribers MoM, whereas VIL lost 0.8m subscribers.

* Mobile number portability (MNP): Total requests for MNP have been consistently increasing for the last 10 months, validated by a higher churn and SIM consolidation. The number of MNP requests in Apr’23 stood at 11m (vs. 11.7m in Mar’23), representing 1.1% of total active subscribers.

* 4G subscribers: The pace of 4G subscriber additions for the industry stood at 4.1m in Apr’23 (vs. 6.6m adds in Mar’23), with the total 4G subscriber base reaching 816m (71% of gross subscribers). In the last one year, the average adds are 4.7m per month. Bharti/RJio continued to add 2.3m/3.0m subscribers, while VIL lost 1.3m subscribers.

* Bharti: The pace of subscriber adds slowed down to 0.1m/0.7m in gross/active subscribers (vs. 1m/2.5m adds in Mar’23), though it is maintaining active market share at 35.7%. 4G subs adds were strong at 2.3m (vs. 2m in Mar’23), taking its total 4G subscriber count to 238m.

* RJio continued to stand out with gross/active subscriber additions of 3m/4.7m MoM (vs. 3.1m/5m in Mar’23), gaining active market share by 30bp to 39.2% (highest in the industry). 4G subscriber adds stood at 3m MoM (vs. 3.1m in Mar’23); the peak was seen last year with 7m adds in Jul’21.

* IDEA continued to witness a 3m/0.8m MoM decline in gross/active subscribers (vs. a decline of 1.2m/0.5m in Mar’23) to 234m/207m. Also, 4G subscribers decreased by 1.3m in Apr’23 (vs. 1.1m increase in Mar’23) to 124m, with a 15.1% 4G market share. Its 4G subscriber count has been flat for the last six months.

* Wired broadband subscribers for the industry increased by 0.4m MoM to 33.9m. RJio/Bharti added 320k/130k subscribers MoM (vs. 310k/140k adds in Mar’23). BSNL’s net subscribers inched up by 30k (vs. 60k adds in Mar’23).

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