India’s Dominant Mobile Phone Operators Reliance Jio Continues To Amass Subscribers

India’s top mobile phone operator Reliance Jio added 6.257 million subscribers in the month of February, while its two principal rivals, Vodafone Idea lost 3.467 million subscribers during the month and Bharti Airtel added just 920,000.

Even the small state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. added 439,000 subscribers during February.

On the whole, Indian mobile companies added a net 4.15 million new subscribers in February, according to data from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.

The total February figure fell below the 5 million new users added in January. Reliance Jio itself added 8.5 million new subscribers in January, while Airtel added 850,000 and Vodafone Idea lost 3.62 million customers.

With about 382.8 million subscribers, Reliance Jio now controls 32.9% of India’s wireless market, while Airtel has 28.35% and Vodafone Idea, 28.05%.

Reliance Jio also boasts 56% of the broadband market share, followed by Bharti Airtel (21.4%) and Vodafone Idea (17.3%).

The total number of telephone subscribers in India (including both landline and mobile users) rose to 1.18 billion at the end of February.

Telephone subscriptions in urban areas slipped marginally to 661 million at the end of February, while rural subscription increased to 519 million.

Analysts at Bernstein expect Reliance Jio to keep amassing more subscribers – reaching and crossing the 500 million in fiscal 2023. Bernstein subsequently expects the company’s subscriber base to reach 569 million in fiscal 2025 and then touch 609 million in fiscal 2028.

At the fiscal 2025 level, Reliance Jio is expected to control nearly half (48%) of the mobile market share.

Bernstein also said it expects Reliance Jio to conduct an initial public offering when its market share nears 50%.

"Based on our updated model, we see potential upside of 30% by [fiscal 2025] at fair value,” Bernstein stated. “Returns will likely be higher as retail investors clamor to get a slice of what will be the undisputed scale player in Indian telecoms.”

Reliance Jio, a subsidiary of conglomerate Reliance Industries, has soared to the top of India’s telecom market mostly by offering very cheap rates and undercutting competitors.

The company has recently raised more than $15 billion through selling stakes to a number of foreign investors, including Facebook (FB).

U.S. Secretary Of State Mike Pompeo recently praised Reliance Jio as a “clean” telecom company while criticizing China's Huawei as being under control of the Chinese military.

“Some of the largest telecom companies around the globe are also becoming clean telcos. We’ve seen this with Orange in France, Jio in India, Telstra in Australia, [SK Telecom] and [KT Corp.] in South Korea, NTT [Communications] in Japan, and O2 in the United Kingdom," Pompeo said.

He added: “They are rejecting doing business with tools of the [Chinese Communist Party] surveillance state, like Huawei.”

Mukesh Ambani, the chairman of Reliance, has claimed that Reliance Jio is the only network in the world that uses no Chinese equipment.