CHART OF THE WEEK 📈
After causing a frenzy in the market, and propelling itself to market leader, Jio has now started losing subscribers and market share. Why?
- Most of the loss can be explained by the hike in prepaid tariffs in late 2021, which all 3 players took. This led to SIM card consolidation, where people with multiple connections gave them up to save on costs. Remember Jio’s proposition throughout? It was to play on cheap tariffs. Naturally, they were the largest to lose.
- A lot of the low-income users may have actually shifted to BSNL. BSNL gained more than 1 million users in December 2021 alone. It offers prepaid plans much cheaper, and without 4G data. But still!
- Airtel however has held its ground, and in fact gained. Bharti seems to have the healthiest subscriber base amongst the 3, and is fundamentally strong. Much of it is reflected in the fact that it has the highest number of ‘active’ subscribers amongst the 3.
