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India’s mobile newcomer added more new customers in June than the market as a whole, taking share above 10%.
Reliance Jio Infocomm added 6.03 million new customers in June, taking its share of the Indian mobile market into double figures for the first time.
The telco claimed 10.39% of the market at the mid-year point, according to new numbers published earlier this week by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), consolidating its position as the country’s fourth-largest mobile operator.
Its net adds were greater than those recorded by the market as a whole. India’s overall mobile customer base grew by 6.02 million in June to reach 1.19 billion.
Jio’s growth comes at the expense of many of its rivals.
It is gradually eating into the market shares of bigger players Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular, and the former holder of fourth spot BSNL; those four players recorded net adds ranging between 35,534 for Idea and 2.05 million for market leader Bharti.
The market’s smaller players are witnessing hefty customer losses though. MTNL, Sistema, Aircel, Telenor, RCom and Tata recorded losses of between 250 and 1.73 million in June.
Many of those players are involved in the ongoing reshaping of India’s mobile market, triggered in no small part by the entry of Reliance Jio last year and its aggressive stance on pricing.
Bharti Airtel is in the process of acquiring Telenor and on Thursday called a shareholder meeting for next month to discuss the deal.
Meanwhile, last week Idea Cellular announced it had received the green light for its merger with Vodafone from India’s stock market regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), while RCom is pushing ahead with a tie-up with Aircel and working on merging with Sistema, and Tata is reportedly holding early merger talks with Bharti.
