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In July, 2.9 million new mobile phone users joined the state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) after commercial telecoms like Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio, and Vodafone Idea (Vi) hiked their rates a month earlier.
In the month of July, Vodafone Idea lost 1.4 million subscribers, while market leader Reliance Jio lost 758,000. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) released data indicating that Bharti Airtel experienced the largest customer exodus in July, with close to 1.7 million users leaving the network.
Due to a one-month lag in Trai data, July's results would not be accessible until September. Beginning in early July, the new tariff plans offered by Jio, Airtel, and Vodafone Idea increased in price by 10–25%. Both Airtel and Jio have increased the entry-level prices for 5G plans by 46% and limited unrestricted 5G connectivity to plans that provide 2GB or more of data per day.
While Jio has excluded JioBharat and JioPhone plans, Airtel has raised the price of its voice-only plans by 11% to INR 199 as the base plan. Jio's pricing increases are more significant, ranging from 12 to 25%, than those of Airtel, Vodafone Idea, and other carriers.
Jio had 475.7 million users as of July, followed by Airtel with 387.3 million, Vodafone Idea with 215.8 million, and BSNL with 88.5 million. From 1.17 billion in June to 1.16 billion in July, there were fewer people using mobile phones overall.
During a recent earnings call, Vodafone Idea CEO Akshaya Moondra mentioned that customers had switched to BSNL as a result of the tariff hike, but she also said that since BSNL did not offer nationwide 4G coverage, customers were likely to switch back to Vodafone Idea.
The only service provider without rate increases is BSNL. Nevertheless, it is already testing 4G services in a few select areas, with a wider 4G rollout scheduled for mid-2025.By March 2025, the telecom provider hopes to have installed 1,00,000 4G towers, with 80,000 completed by October 2024.
5G plans
On the 5G front, BSNL recently partnered with the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DoT), a telecom research and development facility. In order to provide customers around the nation with better speeds and lower latency, BSNL has already begun testing 5G technology.
In Delhi, BSNL has begun testing its in-house constructed 5G network, which will include locations like as Minto Road, Chanakyapuri, and Nehru Place. As quickly as possible, the Indian government wants BSNL to become a profitable business.Because BSNL's 4G rollout was postponed for several years, the government wants to make sure that there are no significant delays with 5G.