In the fierce battle for supremacy among India’s telecom giants – Reliance Jio, Airtel, and Vodafone Idea – customers must ask: Will you prioritize quality service over flashy 4G and 5G promises, or is it time for us to switch?
India’s two largest telecom providers, Reliance Jio and Airtel, are leaving no stone unturned to expand their footprint across the country. With aggressive rollouts of attractive 4G and 5G plans, both giants aim to capture customers’ attention across urban and rural areas. However, despite their strengthening presence, the quality of service remains a significant concern for many customers, prompting them to jump ship.
The latest data from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) paints a worrisome picture, revealing that both companies are grappling with significant subscriber losses amid mounting customer frustration.
According to TRAI, Reliance lost 7.58 lakh (0.76 million) wireless subscribers in July 2024 alone, bringing its total down to 47.58 crore (475.77 million).
The situation of Airel is even more concerning. In July this year, it lost 16.94 lakh (1.69 million) wireless subscribers, reducing its total to 38.73 crore (387.33 million). This is despite the fact that Vodafone Idea (VI) continues to lose subscribers to these top two telecom giants.
VI lost approximately 14.14 lakh (1.41 million) wireless subscribers in July 2024, bringing its total down to 21.59 crore (215.88 million).
However, when we delve deeper into the numbers, these losses may appear negligible, accounting for less than 1% of each provider’s overall wireless subscriber base. Jio’s monthly subscriber loss represents just 0.16% of the total, while Airtel and VI’s declines reflect 0.44% and 0.65% of the total, respectively.
Yet, losing over 7 lakh subscribers in a single month is a significant development that cannot be dismissed. This is particularly striking when we consider that Jio added nearly 42 lakh subscribers in January 2024 alone and maintained a trend of adding tens of lakh subscribers each month up to June.
Therefore, the stark reversal in July highlighted factors contributing to this unexpected decline and leads us to a few thought-provoking questions:
Are these subscriber losses a temporary blip or the beginning of a larger shift in trend for Reliance Jio?
To understand better, let’s dig deeper.
The Shift to Internet Calling
In July this year, LocalCircles revealed in a survey that a staggering 89% of mobile subscribers in India had encountered call connection or drop issues in the previous three months. These unreliable traditional mobile networks have compelled many users to turn to mobile data or Wi-Fi for their calling needs.
But does this situation truly concern telecom companies? Interestingly, it seems not.
Reliance Jio, Airtel, and Vodafone Idea are not just telephone service providers but also significant players in India’s broadband market. That means there’s a good possibility that these wireless subscribers, often called mobile users, might just be transitioning to internet calling instead of switching their telecom providers altogether. This highlights telecom giants’ clever positioning – they win either way. The scenario, however, is a little different from that of Reliance Jio.
Network Reliability: A Major Hurdle for Jio
TRAI data reveals that the number of wireless broadband subscribers in India stood at 904.21 million as of July 2024. This total includes fixed wireless subscribers (such as Wi-Fi, Wi-Max, point-to-point radio, and VSAT) and mobile device users (including phones and dongles).
Reliance Jio accounted for 52.6% of India’s wireless broadband subscriber base, totalling 475.77 million in July 2024. Considering Reliance Jio’s underlying fibre network infra, which runs only on high-speed 4G connectivity, these are all wireless broadband subscribers. Therefore, all the 0.76 million wireless subscribers that the company lost shifted to Airtel, Vodafone Idea or BSNL.
In the recent past, Reliance Jio users have faced significant service disruptions multiple times, and these issues persist, raising concerns among subscribers. Most recently, on September 17, 2024, a widespread network outage affected Jio users across India, leading to a surge in complaints on social media platforms. The issue was tracked by Down Detector, which reported a substantial increase in network-related problems. According to the platform, 68% of registered complaints were about “No Signal,” while 37% of users experienced issues with mobile internet connectivity, and 14% reported problems with JioFiber services.
These issues highlight a need for Jio to improve its network infrastructure across the country. This concern, however, does not appear to be affecting Airtel or other telecom providers in the same way.
Airtel Subscribers Embracing Broadband?
Unlike Jio, Airtel’s subscribers are divided into two buckets. The company has 275.88 million wireless broadband subscribers, representing 71.2% of its total wireless subscriber base. The remainder are non-broadband or narrowband subscribers.
In July alone, Airtel lost 16.94 lakh (1.69 million) net wireless subscribers. On one hand, Airtel successfully added 2.56 million new wireless broadband subscribers, reflecting a 0.94% month-over-month increase. On the other hand, the company also lost 4.25 million narrowband subscribers during the same month. Even if we consider that half of these narrowband users transitioned to broadband, the fact that 2 million subscribers shifted to rival providers raises critical concerns about customer retention and overall service satisfaction.
A closer look at Airtel’s performance over the past year reveals a complex narrative. Airtel lost 19.38 million narrowband wireless subscribers over the last 12 months ending in July 2024, while simultaneously growing its broadband subscriber base by 31.47 million. This indicates a possible shift in consumer behaviour: Airtel’s mobile customers appear to be embracing its faster broadband services – an encouraging sign for the company.
In contrast, Vodafone Idea faces significant challenges, losing both wireless broadband and narrowband subscribers in July 2024. VI reported monthly losses of 1.1 million wireless broadband subscribers and 0.31 million wireless narrowband subscribers, which signals potential service deficiencies that are not resonating with consumers.
Over the past year ending July 2024, the loss of total wireless subscribers for VI has been alarming, counting 12.45 million. While the company managed to add 2.45 million wireless broadband subscribers during this period, this increase pales compared to the 14.90 million wireless narrowband subscribers lost, highlighting severe customer loyalty and satisfaction issues.
In conclusion, the current state of India’s telecom sector reflects a complex interplay of subscriber gains and losses, driven largely by service quality and customer satisfaction.
As Reliance Jio and Airtel continue to innovate with their offerings, they must prioritize enhancing the quality of their services to retain their customer base.
Airtel still enjoys some cushion when retaining its dissatisfied wireless narrowband users who prefer to transition to broadband before jumping off the ship. Conversely, Reliance Jio has zero margin for error, considering all its wireless/mobile customers are already on the broadband network. In case of dissatisfaction, the only option they have is to port.
The question remains: is this subscriber loss a temporary setback, or does it signal deeper, more systemic issues in the industry?
 wireless subscribers alone in July 2024. While Airtel){kind=link}