Vodafone Idea lost 8.3 million wireless subscribers in Aug: TRAI

The subscriber loss of Vodafone Idea slowing down in August in an indication that users may be willing to give the debt-laden operator another chance.

According to data released by the TRAI, Vodafone Idea lost 8.33 lakh subscribers in August against 14.30 lakh subscribers in July.

Though the relief package by the government was announced in September, there was an expectation in the market that Vodafone Idea will not be left to shut down its operations. A clear indication of whether consumers are back to betting on the beleaguered operator will emerge in the coming months.

But the decline in Vodafone Idea’s subscriber churn has meant that the other two operators have added fewer new users. Reliance Jio added 6.5 lakh subscribers in August against the addition of 65.19 lakh in July, and Bharti Airtel added 1.38 lakh subscribers against the addition of 19.43 lakh in July.

Jio leads
Reliance Jio, however, still leads the fray, reporting a wireless subscriber base of 44.386 crore. Bharti Airtel came in second in the wireless subscriber base count with 35.419 crore subscribers, while Vodafone Idea has a subscriber base of 27.106 crore. Jio added 8.8 lakh subscribers in the rural markets, while Vodafone Idea lost 6.5 lakh rural subscribers. Bharti Airtel also lost 5.4 lakh rural subscribers.

Total wireless subscribers decreased from 1,186.84 million at the end of July to 1,186.72 million at the end of August, thereby registering a monthly decline rate of -0.01 per cent.

Wireless subscriptions in urban areas increased from 650.10 million at the end of July to 650.39 million at the end of August; however, wireless subscription in rural areas decreased from 536.74 million to 536.33 million in the same period.

The proportion of active wireless subscribers was approximately 83.57 per cent of the total wireless subscriber base. In the month of August 2021, 11.28 million subscribers submitted their requests for Mobile Number Portability (MNP).

With this, the cumulative MNP requests increased from 616.87 million at the end of July to 628.15 million at the end of August since the implementation of MNP.

Bharti Airtel has the maximum proportion (97.92 per cent) of its active wireless subscribers (VLR) as against its total wireless subscribers (HLR). The Hindu Business Line