New Vodafone Idea Loses Over 6.5 Million Subscribers in November: COAI

Vodafone Idea has continued its losing streak for the third consecutive month and the telecom operator lost over 6.5 million subscribers in November, revealed the latest monthly subscriber figure report released by the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI). The report also revealed that Airtel added just over 100,000 subscribers during the same period. The total number of mobile subscribers in the country stood at 1.02 billion in November 2018, however since the monthly figure for Reliance Jio was not available for the month, the total subscriber numbers don’t account for any subscribers lost or added by the Mukesh Ambani-owned telecom operator. Instead, COAI uses the October figure provided by TRAI. COAI also doesn’t capture figures of BSNL, MTNL, RCom, and Tata.

Among the individual telecom operators, Vodafone Idea is reigning at the top with a total base of 421.08 million subscribers, of which Vodafone accounted for 215.99 million and Idea for 205.09 million. Airtel claimed the second spot with 314.76 million subscribers and Jio was placed at the third spot with 262.75 million.

Even though Vodafone Idea is the top telecom operator in the country right now, the continuous loss of subscribers by the company would be worrying for the executives. August was the last month when Vodafone has added any subscribers. According to the COAI data, Vodafone had added 1.14 million subscribers in August.

Here is a quick look at the monthly subscriber numbers for Vodafone Idea, Airtel and Jio since July this year, as per COAI data.

Telecom operator	July	August	September	October	November
Vodafone Idea	223.34 million + 220.60 million	224.48 million + 217.17 million	434.97 million	427.6 million	421.08 million
Airtel	344.88 million	345.88 million	343.52 million	341.66 million	341.76 million
Reliance Jio (TRAI Data)	215.26 million	239.23 million	252.25 million	262.75 million	No data

 

As we mentioned, it is important to note here that COAI doesn’t report the subscriber numbers for BSNL, MTNL, Tata, and RCom. As per the subscriber data shared by TRAI on January 3, the state-run BSNL accounted for a total of 113.4 million subscribers in October 2018, whereas MTNL had 3.48 million and RCom was left with mere 24,182 users.

 

In terms of the individual telecom circles, UP (East) continues to be the biggest circle based on total subscribers with 85.16 million subscribers.