The telecom regulatory authority of India (Trai) posted a 9-month excessive decline of 5.7 million in Vi’s gross subscribers to 284 million, whereas active customers felly by 1.5 million to 26.3 million. Meanwhile, as per Vi’s October-December quarter outcomes, its gross cell subscribers fell solely by 2 million. The firm reported 270 million subscribers at December-end.
“Trai and operators comply with completely different definitions of reporting their subscriber base. Given the massive discrepancy between active subs and gross subs numbers, I feel it is mere cleaning-up of the active base,” a Mumbai-based brokerage analyst stated.
“Given that firms comply with a extra conservative strategy of reporting numbers, Vi’s development alerts stabilisation in losses with a sticky user base and we don’t see any large concern as of now,” one other analyst stated.
However, brokerage agency Motilal Oswal maintained that top subscriber loss by Vi “is a key purple flag because the 3QFY21 outcome positively hinted at slower deceleration.”
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and Reliance Jio who had 329 million and 328 million active subscribers respectively ended 2020 with market share of 33.7% and 33.6%. Vi’s share of active customers has fallen to 26.3%.
has been in a position to arrest its subscriber decline since March when it was shedding shut to six.4 million in a month which had almost halved to 2.9 million in November. December’s excessive of 5.4 million, nonetheless, doesn’t increase a lot concern, when Trai numbers are in contrast with these of the corporate.
“The subscriber base for the trade as a complete is now simply 1.4% decrease than pre-COVID ranges at 989.1 million in Mar’20,” Motilal Oswal stated in its report.
As per Trai knowledge, internet subscriber addition through the month of December for Reliance Jio hit an all-time low of 0.5 million attributable to elevated port-outs amid farmer agitation. Still, Jio maintained its prime spot in gross subscriber market share at 35.4%, adopted by Airtel’s 29.4% and Vi’s 24.6%.
