The telecom industry’s ‘active’ subscriber base rose by almost 2.5 million in October 2020 to touch about 961 million, and user additions benefited from vanishing influence of SIM consolidation triggered from tariff hike, according to a newest report.
ICICI Securities, in its report crunching Trai’s telecom subscription information, stated Bharti Airtel’s active subscribers rose about 3 million to attain almost 320 million in October 2020, “most of which was driven by total subscriber net adds, thus indicating improving quality of subscriber addition”.
Bharti Airtel saw the highest subscriber addition in its traditionally weak circles of Maharashtra (.7 million) and Gujarat (.5 million).
The active subscribers are calculated primarily based on the reported visitor place register (VLR), a crucial metric reflecting the quantity of active customers on a mobile network.
“Industry-active subscriber base expanded by 2.5 million to 961 million. Subscriber addition has benefited from vanishing impact of SIM consolidation triggered from tariff hike,” the report stated.
According to the ICICI Securities’ report, Jio’s active subscribers rose 1.1 million to 319 million in October.
It added that Vodafone Idea Ltd’s (VIL) active subscriber numbers continued to decline, but at a reduced pace it fell 1.2 million resulting in an active subscriber base of about 260 million in October 2020. VIL’s total subscriber base shrunk by pretty much 2.7 million, it stated.
ICICI Securities observed that Bharti Airtel has regained industry leader position by active subscribers.
On an all round basis, Airtel added 3.6 million new buyers in October, taking its total wireless client base to 330.3 million in October 2020, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (Trai) information.
Airtel was followed by Reliance Jio, which added all round 2.22 million new mobile buyers, taking its total subscriber base to 406.3 million in the course of the stated month. Vodafone Idea Ltd and state-owned BSNL and MTNL reported a loss of subscriber base, on an all round basis.