Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel gaining equally at the expense of Vodafone Idea

Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd and Bharti Airtel Ltd are equally splitting the telecom subscribers that are exiting Vodafone Idea (Vi), the latest data from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) showed.

Over 2 million wireless subscribers exited Vodafone Idea in February. Reliance Jio gained 1 million, and Airtel added 982,554 subscribers. The data showed that the total number of wireless subscribers fell by over a million during the month.

However, despite losing subscribers rapidly, Vi still has a market share of over 20 per cent. Reliance Jio has the highest number of subscribers, with a market share of 37.41 per cent. It is followed by Bharti Airtel with 32.39 per cent share.

"As on February 28, 2023, the private access service providers held 90.63 per cent market share of the wireless subscribers whereas BSNL and MTNL, the two PSU access service providers, had a market share of only 9.37 per cent," Trai said.

Vi has been struggling to clear its dues, which has also impacted the telco's plans to roll out the 5G services. While Jio and Airtel have already launched the 5G services, Vi has yet to roll it out in India.

In an interview with Mint earlier this week, telecom secretary K Rajaraman said that Vi is expected to develop a revival plan within a month.

He also said that the return of Kumar Mangalam Birla, chairman of Aditya Birla group, to the board of the ailing telco is a "positive step", and the telco is in talks with several institutions to raise capital for its 5G rollout plans.

As of September 2022, the company has a debt of Rs 2.2 trillion. In February, the Centre decided to convert the company's adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues of Rs 16,133.3 crore into equities and become its largest shareholder.