Vodafone-Idea (VIL) continues to lose its customers and recorded a net loss of 8,60,889 consumers from its network in June, while Reliance Jio (Rjio) and Bharti Airtel (Airtel) added 19,11,029 and 12,52,305 subscribers in their network during the month, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI’s) latest monthly data released on Tuesday said.
The telecom operators including Airtel, RJio and VIL had announced tariff hikes towards the end of June and early July, and according to analysts, there could be more changes in the July subscription data in the coming month.
Airtel has now increased the minimum tariff to ₹199 from ₹179 earlier, for the prepaid plans and for postpaid plans, it has increased the minimum tariff rate to ₹449 from ₹399 earlier. The maximum tariff plan has now been revised to ₹3,599 from ₹2,999 earlier.
The company has maintained that the mobile average revenue per user (ARPU) needs to be upwards of ₹300, to enable ‘a financially healthy business model for telcos in India’.
Similarly, RJio since July 3, has increased the minimum tariff to ₹189 from ₹155 earlier and for maximum, it has revised to ₹3,599 from ₹2,999 earlier. VIL also has increased its minimum tariff to ₹199 from earlier ₹179 and maximum to ₹3,499 from ₹2,899 earlier.
Wireless subscribers
Meanwhile, TRAI said the total wireless subscribers increased to 1,170.53 million at the end of June, thereby registering a monthly growth rate of 0.13 per cent compared with from 1,168.95 million in May, it said.
TRAI said wireless subscription in urban areas increased to 635 million at the end of June from 634.10 million at the end of May and wireless subscription in rural areas also increased to 535.53 million during the same period from 534.85 million in May. Monthly growth rate of urban and rural wireless subscription was 0.14 per cent and 0.13 per cent respectively.
The regulator also informed that as of June, 11.84 million subscribers submitted their requests for mobile number portability (MNP). With this, the cumulative MNP requests increased to 997.44 million at the end of June from 985.60 million at the end of May, since implementation of MNP in 2010.
The number of active wireless subscribers (on the date of peak) in June was 1061.04 million, TRAI added.