With no tariff hikes in sight, telcos' market share consolidation continues

livemint.com:

Reliance Jio are the key beneficiaries. Vodafone Idea Ltd’s struggles to raise capital to fund its growth augurs well for other companies, especially in terms of subscriber addition. In this backdrop, Bharti and Jio would reap the benefits.

Note the data from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) for June. Jio and Bharti have led the net additions in subscribers in the industry, growing by 3% and 6% year-on-year, respectively. On the other hand, Vodafone Idea continues to lose subscribers, clocking 11% year-on-year lower subscriber additions in June.

The multiple initiatives undertaken by both Airtel and Jio to attract new customers and retain existing ones could have helped here. One is the capital expenditure on the deployment of 5G services. While Bharti is relatively selective in terms of regions for deploying 5G, Jio is aggressive.

Also, Jio has introduced new plans to expand its broadband customer base, such as the ‘Broadband back-up’ plan. It also introduced multiple plans to strengthen its postpaid customers, as these customers are stickier in nature than prepaid. On the other hand, Bharti, in the last few quarters, has taken price increases in its lower end of the plans, though the management clarified that the benefit of the tariff was small.