NEW DELHI: Mukesh Ambani promoted Reliance Jio added more subscribers in December 2017 than all other wireless telecom operators combined, according to Trai data released on Friday. Jio added a little over 8 million subscribers against 2.43 million by Idea Cellular and 1.5 million by Vodafone India during December 2017.
Bharti Airtel managed to add only 5.76 lakh subscribers during the month, a little more than what BSNL added (4.21 lakh subscribers).
The December data is also crucial as many subscribers from former telecom operators continue to opt for the five major functional ones. RCom along with Tata, Telenor and Aircel lost as much as 7.3 million subscribers in December.
When Anil Ambani promoted RCom lost 25.75 million customers in November after its announcement it would shut down its 2G and 3G wireless operations, the gap in customer addition between Jio and other operators was not that big.
Jio added 6.11 million customers in November, while Airtel, Vodafone and Idea added 4.34 million, 2.7 million and 3.19 million, respectively. The large customer addition in December by Jio takes its market share to 13.71 per cent from 13.08 per cent at the end of November. The market share of Airtel, Vodafone and Idea witnessed a marginal decline in December against November.
Experts say cheap tariff rates, affordable handsets and massive marketing strategy are working in favour of Jio. Also, Jio’s quality of service has improved while others are still struggling with call drop issues.
However, others are infusing huge sums of money in the coming months and have announced partnerships to fight the disruption caused by Jio.