Reliance Jio Has More Users Than Vodafone Idea & Airtel in India

Reliance Jio started its commercial service in 2016 and since merger of Vodafone and Idea, it has become stronger.

COAI feels that the strategy could work in both ways for Reliance Jio. 

(Photo: The Quint)

It has finally happened. After over three years of commercial operations, Reliance Jio now leads the Indian telecom sector with highest number of users on its network.

This became clear on Friday, after Vodafone Idea Limited, through its latest financial statement, mentioned it has 320 million users, dropping down from the last reported figure of 334.1 million.

This puts Reliance Jio, now catering to 331 million users, above Vodafone Idea, as well as Airtel in the country.

The latest development comes just a few months after the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) stated in its report that Jio had overtaken Airtel to become the second biggest telco in the country.

Jio has heavily thrived in an ecosystem, conducive for its entry back then with its 4G LTE network, while its rivals were still battling their way through legacy 2G and 3G network spread across the country.

And while it’s interesting to observe the growth trajectory of Jio in such a short span of time, the industry will have taken notice of the downward spiral taken by Vodafone Idea Limited (VIL) since both the telcos formed a merged entity.

Post the merger, VIL became the largest telecom operator with over 400 million subscribers.

However, since then, the merged entity has been losing customers every month, which became indicative with its quarterly reports. And their new approach to focus on increasing average revenue per user (ARPU) hasn’t helped matters either.

Experts agree that ARPU has become the huge factor in this battle, and because of which Jio has surpassed its competition to become the leading telecom network.

Going forward, the Reliance-owned telco has made it clear that it will continue to focus on adding more users to its network, without worrying about clocking low ARPU rates, which stands at Rs 122 per month, as per its latest figures.

At the same time, VIL and Airtel have reported ARPU of 108 and Rs 125 per month respectively. And by increasing the prices of its data plans, the telcos hope to see a gradual increase in those numbers, which could result in more users deflecting to its competition, ie Jio.