Lockdown Affect: Airtel And Vodafone-Idea Lose Customers In April 2020

Airtel and Vodafone-Idea have lost close to 10 million subscribers in April 2020 as low-income users have surrendered or gave up their connections. This means that the nationwide lockdown has forced people to give up on their network services. It is worth mentioning that both operators are in crisis due to AGR issues, and now, losing customers will affect their business.

On the other hand, Reliance Jio has added 1.57 million customers in lockdown. However, Jio added 4.7 million users in March 2020. "Many migrant workers and low-ARPU customers may have found it tough to sustain multiple connections during lockdowns, and may have surrendered one to save money, which led to the fall in the April mobile user base," industry sources added.

According to the TRAI data, Airtel and Vodafone-Idea user base fell to 322.54 million and 314.65 million, whereas Reliance Jio has managed to achieve 389.09 million customers. This is quite surprising and means that lockdown and price increased are not affecting Jio's business.

Telecom Operator Market Share In April

The data highlighted that private telecom player, such as Reliance Jio, Vodafone-Idea, and Airtel have managed to garner 89. 28 percent market share during the same month. The Jio has registered 33.85 percent share, while Airtel has 28.06 percent share, and the merged entity has managed to get only 27.57 percent market share.

Furthermore, the data highlighted that telephone subscribers have decreased from 1,117.97 million to 1,169.44 million in April. This means the user base has posted a decline rate of 0.72 percent. Similarly, wireless subscriptions have posted negative numbers in the country. The 2G, 3G, and 4G subscriber base have declined from 1,157.75 million in March to 1,149.52 million in April.

The data noted that BSNL is leading the wired broadband segment in India. The internet service provider has 7.97 million customers, while Bharti Airtel has 2.44 million users, and Atria Convergence Technologies is serving 1.59 million customers in the country. Hathway Cable & Datacom is providing its services to 0.97 million customers, and Reliance Jio Infocomm has only 0.90 million customers on its JioFiber platform.