Reliance Jio becomes second-largest player in terms of mobile subscriber market share on a standalone basis

Reliance Jio, the Mukesh Ambani-led 4G telecom operator’s market share increased to 19.6 percent in July 2018, surpassing both Vodafone India Limited (Vodafone) and Idea Cellular Limited, thereby becoming the second-largest player on a standalone basis, India Ratings said in a report. On a month-on-month basis, the market share of Bharti Airtel Limited (Bharti) marginally declined to 29.8 percent in July (June 2018: 30.1 percent). Vodafone Idea Limited (Vodafone Idea) had a market share of 38.4 percent in July 2018. [caption id=“attachment_4249453” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Reliance Jio. Reuters.[/caption] India Ratings further said, in July 2018, Reliance Jio added 11.8 million mobile subscribers, led by the relaunch of RJio’s 4G feature phone, while other telcos reported flat subscriber growth. Aircel Cellular Limited (Aircel) has not reported subscriber numbers since April 2018. Most of Aircel’s subscribers would have moved to other telcos due to the closure of its services. In July 2018 subscriber growth continued and was led by a rise in data subscriber. During the month, overall 10.6 million wireless subscribers were added, indicating a monthly growth rate of 0.9 percent, India Ratings said. As per India Ratings, in July 2018, broadband subscribers increased 48.0 percent (year-on-year) to 460.2 million, driven by low data prices, the relaunch of RJio’s 4G feature phone and better affordability of smartphones. On a month-on-month basis, the broadband subscriber base increased by 13.0 million in July 2018.  Through low-priced plans and high-speed data, RJio was able to attract new and existing wireless broadband subscribers and increase related market share to 49.3 percent in July 2018 (July 2017: 41.4 percent). In July 2018, the market share of Bharti increased to 20.7 percent (July 2017: 19.0 percent) and that of Vodafone Idea combined marginally increased to 23.3 percent (22.6 percent), India Ratings report said. (Disclosure - Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd)