Bharti Airtel, Reliance Industries, and Vodafone Idea stocks saw little movement in morning trading on April 2 following the release of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) data indicating muted subscriber additions in January.
Reliance Jio emerged as the market leader with 41.8 lakh mobile subscriber additions in January, followed by Bharti Airtel with 7.52 lakh. Conversely, Vodafone Idea experienced a loss of 15.2 lakh wireless subscribers, as per the data.
Analysts anticipate continued market share gains for Bharti Airtel or Reliance Jio as 5G adoption becomes mainstream. However, they highlight the need to monitor Jio’s performance in active subscriber additions.
While Reliance Jio maintained its leading position, its active market share gains remained flat month-on-month (MoM) at 40.5 percent. Bharti Airtel’s active market share increased by 30 basis points (bps) MoM to 36.3 percent, while Vodafone Idea’s active market share decreased by 20 bps MoM to 18.6 percent.
Overall, the telecom industry witnessed healthy gross subscriber additions of 23 lakh in January, driven by Jio and Bharti. Rural subscriber base growth stood at 17 lakh MoM.
In terms of mobile broadband, Bharti Airtel gained 24 lakh net adds in January 2024, while Vodafone Idea lost 5 lakh subscribers. Additionally, India’s fixed broadband (FBB) subscribers more than doubled over the past four years.
Analysts at Kotak Institutional Equities anticipate continued market share gains for Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel at Vodafone Idea’s expense, driven by pan-India 5G rollouts and network coverage advantages.
Sources Of Information: Moneycontrol
