Reliance Jio becomes the largest telecom operator in India in less than three years, beats Vodafone Idea

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio has finally surpassed Vodafone Idea in terms of total userbase and revenue and become the largest telecom operator in India in less than three years of operations. The news has arrived after both the companies individually released their quarterly figures at the end of Q2 2019.

Recently, Vodafone Idea reported 320 million subscribers at the end of Q2 2019, falling behind Reliance Jio's 331.3 million subscribers during the same period. As a result, Reliance Jio has finally managed to take the lead over Vodafone Idea to become the country's largest telecom operator.

Previously, Reliance Jio, with its 322.9 million subscribers, had beaten Airtel with 320.3 million subscribers, as per figures released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) at the end of May 2019. However, Airtel is yet to release its subscribers figure for Q2 2019. Here's what you need to know:

In its earnings report, Vodafone Idea reported a significant decline in terms of userbase, down to 320 million at the end of Q2 2019, from 334.1 million from the Q1 2019. It also resulted in a 4.1 per cent decline in Q1 revenue "due to churn of customers who recharged with ‘service validity vouchers’ in Q4 as well as ARPU down-trading."

"We are delivering on our stated strategy although the benefits are not yet visible in our top line. As we continue to integrate our networks, our customers’ data experience is significantly improving in most services areas and we now lead the league tables on data download speeds in Delhi, West Bengal and Chennai," said Balesh Sharma, CEO Vodafone Idea limited.

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"We remain focused on expanding our 4G coverage to over a billion Indians as well as expanding our data capacities by adding more sites on TDD and deploying Massive MIMO.  We are well on track to deliver our synergy targets by Q1FY21. We expect these factors to increasingly contribute to our financial performance going forward," Sharma added.

Aiming to improve average revenue per user (ARPU), Vodafone Idea said that it had started providing users with Rs 2GB and 2.5GB daily data at Rs 229 and Rs 255 respectively. Vodafone Idea's ARPU stood at Rs 108, recording 3.7 per cent growth. Meanwhile, Reliance Jio's ARPU was at Rs 122 at the end of Q2, down from Rs 126.2 from Q1 2019.