Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. has experienced a significant subscriber churn, with 1.65 crore users leaving the platform over the past four months, including a loss of 37.6 lakh mobile subscribers in October alone. Similarly, Vodafone Idea (Vi) saw a decline of 19.3 lakh subscribers in October, compared to 15.5 lakh in September, according to the latest Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) report.
The subscriber exodus for private telecom operators follows tariff hikes implemented earlier this year. Most private players, including Jio and Vi, revised their rates in July after announcing the changes in late June.
In contrast, state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL) added five lakh subscribers in October, bringing its four-month total to 68.1 lakh. BSNL’s growth is attributed to its affordable plans and enhanced rural connectivity, marking a significant shift as the public sector telecom had been losing ground to private competitors in recent years.
Bharti Airtel Ltd. gained five lakh subscribers in October, reversing a previous loss of 14.3 lakh users in September.
On a net basis, India lost about 33 lakh mobile subscribers in October, an improvement from the one-crore decline in September. However, Reliance Jio added the most active subscribers (VLR subscribers) at 38.4 lakh, followed by Airtel with 27.2 lakh and BSNL with 9.5 lakh.
This subscriber data coincides with a 20% drop in complaints against unregistered telemarketers and spam calls, as reported by TRAI. Complaints fell from 1.89 lakh in August to 1.51 lakh in October, following TRAI’s directive to telecom operators to block voice promotional calls from unregistered senders and blacklist violators for two years.
