Reliance Jio has become India’s largest telecom company, possessing a user base of 331.3 million subscribers.
Jio is India’s youngest operator, as it only launched its services back in September 2016 whereby it disrupted the industry with its cheap tariff plans.
In May this year, Jio was in second place, possessing 27.8 per cent of the market share while Vodafone Idea’s share was at 33.4 per cent and Bharti Airtel at 27.6 per cent.
“Our subscriber base declined to 320.0 million from 334.1 million in fourth quarter of financial year 2019 primarily due to customer churn following the introduction of ‘service validity vouchers’ in the prior quarters,” said its competitor, Vodafone Idea, in a statement.
Vodafone Idea is one of the largest telecom operators in the country, with over 400 million users after Vodafone and Idea Cellular officially merged their telecoms services. However, when they rolled out their monthly minimum recharge plans, they began to lose subscribers which has led to decreased revenue; the merged Telco could continue to lose more subscribers due to this.
“Jio continues to be market leader across category A, B, and C while Vodafone Idea maintains metro market leadership,” said Rajiv Sharma, Co-Head of Research at SBICap Securities.
Bharti Airtel experienced a sequential revenue decline in key markets which amount to a rate of 11.4 per cent decline.
In contrast, Jio’s adjusted gross revenue grew by 4 per cent sequentially while Vodafone experienced a 0.03 per cent decrease.
The revenue leader, Vodafone Idea was at Rs 10,149 crore however, analysts have stated that the company’s future looked bleak as it experienced several loses in up to 14 markets.
