Jio is India's biggest telecom player; Voda Idea user base dips to 320 mln

Reliance Jio has become India's largest telecom company with 331.3 million subscribers, after Vodafone Idea on Friday reported a decline in its user base to 320 million in June 2019.

Reliance Jio had a user base of 331.3 million in June 2019.

Jio, which started operations three years ago and is owned by Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries, pipped Bharti Airtel in May to become the second largest mobile operator with 322.9 million users and 27.80 per cent market, according to Trai data. Airtel had 320.38 users or 27.6 per cent market share.

Vodafone Idea on Friday reported a decline in its customer base to 320 million in the first quarter of 2019-20 from 334.1 million in the March quarter.

"Our subscriber base declined to 320.0 million from 334.1 million in fourth quarter of financial year 2019 primarily due to customer churn following the introduction of ‘service validity vouchers' in the prior quarters," Vodafone Idea said in a statement. 

Vodafone Idea had emerged as the largest telecom operator with over 400 million subscribers after Vodafone India and Idea Cellular completed the merger of telecom services business.

However, the merged entity continued to lose customers every month and later it wrote off million of customers who did not subscribe to its minimum recharge plan.