Reliance Jio cements its lead over Airtel in both total as well as active subscribers

• irtel and Reliance Jio added 0.14 million and 0.65 million subscribers respectively.
• Vodafone Idea reported a loss of 0.83 million subscribers in August.
• Reliance Jio is now ahead of Airtel in both total and active subscribers.

Indian telecom companies Airtel and Reliance Jio continued adding subscribers in August while Vodafone Idea once again reported a substantial reduction in subscribers. At the same time, Airtel and Reliance Jio’s new additions have decreased compared to the earlier month.

For the second consecutive month, Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio has more active subscribers than its rival Airtel. At the end of July, Jio had only a marginal lead over Sunil Mittal-led Airtel; its lead has now grown to over 4 million.

Reliance Jio leads in subscriber addition, Vodafone Idea continues to lose

In August, Reliance Jio added 0.65 million subscribers, compared to July’s addition of 6.52 million additions. Similarly, Airtel’s subscriber addition slowed down to 0.14 million from July’s 1.94 million.

Vodafone Idea continued its decline and lost 0.83 million subscribers, down from 1.4 million in July.

While Jio is ahead of Airtel and Vodafone Idea in terms of absolute numbers, Airtel and Vodafone Idea fare better when we look at the rate of active subscribers compared to the total subscribers.

Reliance Jio’s rate of active is 79.1%, which is significantly lesser than Airtel’s 98%. Similarly, Vodafone which despite its continuous decline has a better rate of active subscribers at 87.1%.

The new changes in subscribers have given a better edge to Reliance Jio compared to its rivals.

Reliance Jio now has 443.9 million subscribers, compared to Airtel’s 345.2 million and Vodafone Idea’s 271.1 million.

While Vodafone Idea continues its downwards spiral, Reliance Jio has finally caught up with Airtel to become the telco with the highest active subscriber market share.

The telecom companies will get some relief in the coming months thanks to the adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues moratorium announced by the government. As per a report, Vodafone Idea has already informed the government that it wants to accept the moratorium.

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