For the first time since October 2019, cash-strapped Vodafone Idea Ltd has added subscribers. It added 1.7 million wireless customers in January, taking its wireless user base to 286 million. Bharti Airtel led the gain in subscriber base, adding 5.9 million users in January.

Reliance Jio Infocomm was hit by slowing subscriber growth, adding around 2 million customers.

Despite the addition, Vodafone Idea’s market share shrunk marginally to 24.58 per cent month-on-month, while Airtel expanded 29.62 per cent as on January 31. At 35.30 per cent, Reliance Jio remains India’s largest telco by market share.

It is the No. 1 player with 410.7 million wireless subscribers, followed by Airtel’s 344.6 million and Vodafone’s 286 million.

“All service areas except Mumbai showed growth in wireless subscribers during January. Uttar Pradesh (west) service area showed maximum growth of 6.45 per cent in its wireless subscriber base during the month,” Trai said in its monthly data.

But, in terms of active subscribers, Bharti continued to be the leader with 97.44% or 335.8 million active users, while only 79.01% base of Jio was active with 324.5 million users, at the end of January 2021. Vi trailed behind with an active user base of 256.3 million users, which is 89.63% of its total base.

Tariff hike

Analysts said telcos are looking at the option of increasing the average revenue per user (ARPU) and some of the measures being considered include a reduced validity period of postpaid plans or even cutting down on data and voice allowances on existing prepaid plans without changing the pack value.

This could drive customer migrations to higher-value plans or even to booster packs once their allowances expire, both of which would be tariff accretive for incumbent operators.

Airtel has said that industry average revenue per user (ARPU) needs to rise to Rs 200 in the near-term, it has repeatedly said it won’t take the lead in raising tariffs but would definitely follow if either Vi or Jio raises rates.

Vodafone Idea which had an ARPU of Rs 121 – lower than Airtel’s Rs 166 and Jio’s Rs 151 – in the December quarter, was slated to raise tariffs by the March-end. But that plan seems to have been shelved after Jio last month launched offers on its 4G feature phone – JioPhone – seemingly to target the country’s remaining 300 million feature phone user.