Reliance Jio gets its second big jolt on its path to 500 million subscribers

• Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) telecom subscriber data for the month of December 2021 was a rude shock for Mukesh Ambani’s Jio.
  
• The Ambani-led telco lost 13 million subscribers, making it its second biggest subscriber loss so far.
  
• Airtel was the only telco to gain subscribers, with Vodafone Idea’s decline continuing unabated.
  

Mukesh Ambani’s dream of 500 million subscribers has received yet another jolt – it lost 13 million subscribers in the month of December 2021, its second largest fall so far.

Earlier in September 2021, Jio lost 19 million subscribers, which was also its first ever subscriber loss since January 2020.

However, Jio still leads in terms of both total as well as active subscribers.


This will have an impact on the company’s goal of reaching 500 million subscribers by 2023 that was set by Mukesh Ambani in 2020. Jio now has 416 million subscribers, short by more than 80 million subscribers.


Airtel was the only telecom company to gain subscribers in December, adding a little under 0.5 million subscribers.

Vodafone Idea’s troubles continue to expand, losing over 1.6 million subscribers in the same period.

Vodafone Idea’s performance looks even worse when considering the fact that it has lost to Jio in terms of active subscribers for the first time. While Jio has had an active subscriber rate of under 80% for a long time, it has improved its performance recently and now comes in at the second place, edging past Vodafone Idea for the first time.

Airtel continues to impress in this regard, with an active subscriber rate of over 98%. In that sense, Jio still has a long way to go, with its current rate of just under 88%.


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