What’s helping BSNL is a worry for private telcos- Tarriff hike leads to subscriber losses for Jio, Vodafone and Airtel

A month after all the three major telecom operators such as Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio, and Vodafone Idea (Vi) raised tariffs, the overall industry subscriber base, per data shared by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), declined by 0.9 million, which is the first decline since April 2023. This, per JM Financial, was due to sim consolidation in the lower ARPU segment on account of 15-17 per cent tariff hike announced during the first week of Jul’24 by all 3 private telcos. According to Telecom Subscription Data shared by TRAI, Reliance Jio lost 758,000 subscribers in July, Vodafone Idea lost 1.4 million and Bharti Airtel lost the maximum, with nearly 1.7 million customers exiting the network during July.