Reliance Jio has fewer active users than Vodafone, Idea

Reliance Jio has fewer active users than Vodafone, Idea

Trai data showed the active subscriber (VLR) base of Jio was at 187.3 million at the end of July. This is lower than Bharti’s 342 million, Vodafone’s 206.4 million and Idea Cellular’s 201.3 million.

The Facebook app is currently available on all Reliance JioPhones and can be downloaded from the JioStore.
Reliance Jio may have displaced Vodafone and Idea to emerge as the second largest telecom operator in terms of subscribers at the end of July, but going by the number of active subscribers — or the visitor location register — the telco lags the two and is in the fourth position.

Trai data showed the active subscriber (VLR) base of Jio was at 187.3 million at the end of July. This is lower than Bharti’s 342 million, Vodafone’s 206.4 million and Idea Cellular’s 201.3 million.

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Telecom analyst Mahesh Uppal believes the VLR numbers, which essentially refers to the number of actual users as opposed to the total numbers, is a better measure of popularity.

“While it is easy for Jio to acquire data customers, what is more difficult is to get people to use Jio as their first phone number,” Uppal said.

Jio, analysts explain, would not be less concerned about becoming the primary voice number and more focused on revenues coming in from the subscriptions. “As long as subscriptions are increasing and revenues are rising, it would be comfortable,” they said.

Uppal explained that while Airtel and others were earning substantial revenues from voice calls, they were struggling somewhat to generate data revenues.

Around 82.5 per cent of Jio’s total subscriber base of 227 million are active users but for Bharti, this is a higher 99.42 per cent, while for Vodafone it is 92.84 per cent. Of the country’s total mobile subscriber base of 1.16 billion, 86.97 per cent is active.

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The concept of VLR was brought in by Trai in 2010. A user should have used the mobile phone at least once a month. While Jio is adding a higher number of users every month, a higher proportion of its users is not using the phones regularly. Analysts say it is possible the bulk of Jio’s subscribers use the connection as a secondary one. This also explains why despite the rapid growth of Jio’s subscriber base, incumbents aren’t really seeing a churn. The churn at Bharti Airtel, for instance was 2 per cent in the April-June quarter compared with 2.8 per cent in the preceding quarter.

Another reason incumbents have a higher VLR could be that subscribers are opting for their networks while roaming rather than Jio’s. Jio is a fully 4G network and not all users may have a 4G phone. —FE Share on whatsapp