Porting requests at 8-month low; Voda biggest loser among major providers

In Feb 2024, subscribers made nearly 12 mn portability requests, lowest since June 2023

There was a slowdown in Indians switching service providers toward the end of the year, as the top two telecom operators consolidated their positions.

In February 2024, subscribers made nearly 12 million portability requests, marking the lowest figure since June 2023. Both Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio Infocomm added millions of customers even as Vodafone Idea lost over a million a month during financial year 2023-24 (FY24).

Vodafone, which is said to have lost subscribers amid limited capital expenditure to augment its services, announced fund-raising plans through a Rs 18,000 crore share sale starting on Thursday. Some of the money is said to go towards fresh investments.

Mobile number portability allows users to switch from one operator to another service provider of their choice, irrespective of the geographical area. In February 2024, portability requests totalled 11.5 million in the month, an increase by 3.1 per cent compared to February 2023, according to data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE). The highest number of such requests was observed in October 2023, reaching 12.7 million requests (chart 1).

 

On Monday, Chief Executive of Vodafone Idea Akshaya Moondra announced that the telecom service provider will launch 5G services, following its follow-on-public (FPO) funding. He highlighted that Vodafone Idea’s average revenue per user (ARPU) in China is $6.64, significantly higher compared to India’s $2.08. The ARPU per month for wireless services increased from Rs 115.71 during the financial year 2021-22 to Rs 138.75 in 2022-23, according to the ‘Yearly Performance Indicators- Indian Telecom Sector’ report released by TRAI.

Reliance Jio Infocomm added 37 million subscribers in the financial year 2023-24, shows the latest available data as of February, a rise of 8.7 per cent. Bharti Airtel added 13 million, increasing its subscriber base by 3.5 per cent. Vodafone lost 16 million subscribers, a 7 per cent decline-the largest of the top 3 (chart 2). 

Total wireless subscribers grew from 1.14 billion in March 2023 to 1.16 billion in February 2024. The subscriber base is up 1.8 per cent during the financial year.