BSNL gains 2.9 million customers in July after private telcos raised tariffs

New Delhi: State-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) gained 2.9 million mobile phone customers in July, after private telecom operators such as Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio, and Vodafone Idea (Vi) raised tariffs a month earlier.

Market leader Reliance Jio lost 758,000 subscribers in July, while Vodafone Idea lost 1.4 million. Bharti Airtel lost the most, with nearly 1.7 million customers exiting the network during July, data from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) showed.

As of July, Jio had 475.7 million customers, Airtel had 387.3 million, Vodafone Idea 215.8 million and BSNL 88.5 million. Overall mobile phone users came down to 1.16 billion in July from 1.17 billion in June.

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Tariff hikes

Trai data comes with a lag of a month, and therefore, the numbers for July would be available in September. Jio, Airtel and Vodafone Idea’s new tariff plans became pricier by 10-25% with effect from early July. Airtel and Jio have restricted unlimited 5G connectivity to plans that offer 2GB data per day or more, and have raised entry-level tariffs for 5G plans by 46%. Airtel has also increased tariffs for its voice-only plans by 11% to ₹199, unlike Jio that has left out JioBharat and JioPhone plans. While Airtel and Vodafone Idea’s price hikes are in the range of 10-21%, Jio’s hikes are steeper, at 12-25%.

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The hikes will become effective for certain long-duration plans on the next recharge cycle and there could be potential customer churn and downtrading, analysts had expected. In the past, tariff hikes had resulted in SIM consolidation – customers abandoning the use of one or more of the multiple SIMs they use - leading to a reduction in the overall customer base. To be sure, the real impact from the tariff hikes is expected to kick in by the end of the ongoing quarter and the next quarter ending in December, experts said.

Customers switching

In a recent earnings call, Vodafone Idea chief executive officer Akshaya Moondra pointed to customers moving to BSNL due to the tariff hike, but noted that customers were likely to move back to it as they were unlikely to get the 4G coverage that they’re used to at BSNL, which was not available across the country.

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BSNL is the only service provider that has not raised tariffs. However, it offers 4G services in limited geographies on a trial basis, with a larger 4G roll-out planned by the middle of next year.