Reliance Jio leads wireless broadband market with 56% market share: ICRA

According to new report ICRA, RJio was the only telco to gain subscribers in March, as it added 9.5 million users to its network, thereby taking its total subscriber base past 300 million.

ICRA said, with a healthy addition to an active subscriber base, RJio's active subscriber market share has strengthened to 25.2 percent in March 2019 (24.4 percent in February 2019). Vodafone-Idea continues to lead the market with 36.0 percent market share (36.9 percent in February 2019), followed by Bharti, whose market share remained steady at 32.1 percent

The wireless subscriber base in the country reduced to 1,162 million in March 2019, witnessing a decline of 21.9 million subscribers over the previous month; while the active wireless subscriber base remained largely steady at 1,022 million as against 1,023 Million in February.

Further, the wireless broadband subscriber base maintained robust growth momentum, witnessing a growth of 2 percent during the month of March 2019.

"The decline in total subscriber base in March was largely on account of major telcos introducing minimum recharge plans over the last few months. This was done in a bid to wean out low revenue generating subscribers and thus improve ARPU levels as well as profitability, which have been under consistent pressure over the last couple of years. This decline in subscribers is not expected to materially impact the industry revenue potential," Harsh Jagnani, Sector Head & Vice President- Corporate Ratings, ICRA.

Meanwhile, the wireless broadband subscriber base continues to maintain its robust growth momentum, increasing to 544.9 million in March 2019 or 47 percent of the total subscriber base, witnessing the addition of 12.9 million during the month. RJio leads the wireless broadband market, with a market share of 56 percent, followed by Bharti at 21 percent and Vodafone-Idea at 20 percent.

For RJio, 100 percent of its subscribers are broadband subscribers, while the same ratio for Bharti stood at 35 percent and for Vodafone-Idea stood at 28 percent.