Reliance Jio Overtakes Vodafone-Idea to Emerge as India's Leading Telecom Operator

Officially Reliance Jio has overtaken Vodafone-Idea and emerged as India's leading telecom operator. The news came from data collated off the quarterly financial reports furbished by India's three leading telecom operators Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone-Idea. Whereas the monthly subscriber report from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is yet to be published.

In May 2019, through TRAI Bharti Airtel disclosed its user base of 320.4 million users. The time it was enduring a rough quarter of high subscriber churn rate, where its subscribers were unsubscribing from the network against new subscriptions.

On the other hand, Jio recently disclosed Q1 FY20 financial report showing 331.3 million subscribers on its network. Vodafone-Idea's financial report for the same quarter threw light that the operator group lost 14.1 million in Q1 FY20. It was declining from the industry-topping 334.1 million subscribers as on March 2019, to stand at 320 million subscribers at present. The operator lost 14.1 million users in mid of April and June.

Vodafone-Idea has attributed the loss of subscribers to its recently introduced service validity vouchers and the minimum recharge plans. It aims to do away with low revenue customers and consolidate its burgeoning losses.

Whereas Jio has been on a steep appreciation path since the time, it launched three years ago. Single-handedly turned around the Indian telecom market with low-cost data and call plans, also with bundled content and services.

On August 31, 2018, when Vodafone-Idea merger was finalised, the subscriber group had nearly 400 million subscribers. It took the final position of India's number one telecom operator by market share as well as user base. In spite of being the consolidated merger, every month its user base declined consistently in a rate that was directly proportional to Jio's increase in subscriber base.

Trends from TRAI's data over the last one year does not show any opinion of a slowdown in Jio's subscriber base, and with the expected 5G spectrum battle on the horizon, Vodafone-Idea and Bharti Airtel will look to save some of their declining market shares through effective business strategies.