Key Points
Reliance Jio cemented its dominance of rural India in July as it was the only telco to add mobile users while both Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea (Vi) lost ground...
"Jio's strong (rural) momentum is likely driven by JioBharat phone subscribers, especially post Bharti' Airtel's recent hikes in the minimum recharge plans and Jio's launch of the new phone," UBS said in a note...
Latest subscriber data collated by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) showed Jio added 2 million mobile users in the rural markets in July while both Airtel and Vi lost 540,000 and 690,000 rural users respectively...
In July, Jio's parent, Reliance Industries (RIL) had launched Jio Bharat, an internet-enabled feature phone, costing 999 in a bid to attract more of the estimated 250 million entry-level mobile broadband customers, especially in the rural markets where competition is set to intensify with rival Airtel also eyeing this market...
Analysts, though, expect both Jio and Airtel to corner 8% and 5% additional market share gains respectively in the premium mobile broadband users' segment in the coming months, on the back of their rapid pan-India 5G rollouts and loss-making Vi's continuing cash constraints...
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