Airtel gained 4.05 million wireless subscribers against Jio’s 0.47 million while struggling Vi once again lost nearly 5.7 million users in December, according to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) data released on Thursday.
Trai’s mobile user data showed Airtel’s December user base swelled to 338.70 million while Jio’s crept up to 408.77 million. Loss-making Vi’s user base, though, fell further to 284.25 million.
Visitor Location Register, a key metric reflecting the number of active subscribers on a mobile network, showed that 97.1% of the users were active for Bharti Airtel, 90.26% for Vi and 80.23% for Jio.
The three telcos though reported different December end-user numbers to Trai during their quarterly earnings. Jio reported a user base of almost 411 million while Airtel and Vi’s stood at 307.94 million and 269.8 million, respectively.
The difference between the two sets is mainly due to their different ways of accounting for active and inactive subscribers. But the trend of Airtel adding more users than Jio in recent months is borne out by both sets, say analysts. They add that Airtel’s market execution has been better than expectations and its consistently higher 4G-related capex spends compared to its nearest rivals is starting to bear fruit.
