Reliance Jio's subscriber additions have reportedly slowed down since the transition from a free model to paid model. According to the latest data from India's telecom regulator, TRAI, Reliance Jio added 3.9 million subscribers in the month of April. This is its lowest since it started commercial services in September last year.
The subscriber data released by TRAI suggests that Jio gained traction only during September-December period when it offered free services. The service started losing steam since January 2017 when it transitioned users to another free service (Happy New Year offer). In April, Reliance Jio recorded its third consecutive month-on-month decline in subscriber addition.
To recall, Reliance Jio added 16 million subscribers in September 2016 followed by massive 19.6 million new subscribers in October 2016. The subscriber addition slowed a bit in November to 16.3 million, but it again gained traction to 20.3 million subscribers in December 2016. In January, Reliance Jio added 18.5 million subscribers, followed by 12.21 million in February and around 6 million in March.
By comparison, Bharti Airtel added 2.9 million subscribers followed by Vodafone's 0.76 million subscriber addition and Idea's 0.68 million new subscribers in April. By that month, Bharti Airtel has the maximum number of subscribers with 276.5 million, followed by Vodafone with 209.82 million subscribers. The Idea Cellular is third with 196.05 million subscribers. Reliance Jio has reportedly grown from 100 million to 112.55 million subscribers.
However, Jio continues to be the largest mobile broadband service provider with 112.55 million subscribers. It is followed by Bharti Airtel with 52.5 million subscribers, while Vodafone and Idea have 39.76 million and 24.09 million subscribers respectively.