New Delhi: State-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) gained 2.9 million mobile customers in July after private telecom operators such as Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea (Vi) hiked their tariffs a month earlier.
Market leader Reliance Jio lost 758,000 subscribers in July, while Vodafone Idea lost 1.4 million. Bharti Airtel The country lost the lion’s share, with nearly 1.7 million customers leaving the network during July, data from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) showed.
In July, Jio had 475.7 million customers, Airtel 387.3 million, Vodafone Idea 215.8 million and BSNL 88.5 million. The total number of mobile phone users declined from 1.17 billion in June to 1.16 billion in July.
Rate increases
Trai data comes with a delay of one month and hence July figures would be available in September. Jio, Airtel and Vodafone Idea’s new tariff plans became more expensive by 10-25% from the beginning of July. Airtel and Jio have restricted unlimited 5G connectivity to plans offering 2GB data per day or more, and have increased entry-level tariffs for 5G plans by 46%. Airtel has also increased tariffs for its voice-only plans by 11% to ₹199, unlike Jio, which has left out JioBharat and JioPhone plans. While Airtel and Vodafone Idea’s price hikes are in the range of 10-21%, Jio’s hikes are steeper at 12-25%.
Analysts had expected that tariff hikes would come into effect for certain long-term plans in the next recharge cycle and there could be a possible loss of customers and a fall in prices. In the past, tariff hikes had led to SIM consolidation (customers abandoning the use of one or more of the multiple SIM cards they were using), leading to a reduction in the overall customer base. The real impact of the tariff hikes is certainly expected to be felt by the end of the current quarter and the next quarter ending in December, experts said.
Customers who change
In a recent earnings conference call, Vodafone Idea CEO Akshaya Moondra noted that customers were moving to BSNL due to the tariff hike, but noted that customers were likely to return to it as they were unlikely to get the 4G coverage they are used to on BSNL, which was not available across the country.
BSNL is the only service provider that has not increased tariffs. However, it is offering 4G services in limited geographies on a trial basis and plans to roll out more 4G services by the middle of next year.
Disclaimer:
The information contained in this post is for general information purposes only. We make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the website or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained on the post for any purpose.
We respect the intellectual property rights of content creators. If you are the owner of any material featured on our website and have concerns about its use, please contact us. We are committed to addressing any copyright issues promptly and will remove any material within 2 days of receiving a request from the rightful owner.