Jio bags another 10 million – how was your October?

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released the subscription data for October and it’s another familiar story as Reliance Jio grows its subscription base again.

Looking at the market on the whole, India now has 1.17 billion wireless subscriptions, having added another 720,000 during October. Amazingly, market penetration is now up to 87%. While growth has been staggering since Reliance Jio shunted the status quo, if the country follows what would be considered the traditional trend (mobile penetration eventually exceeding 100% of population) there are still a couple of hundred million mobile subscription to realise.

Unsurprisingly, Reliance Jio has greedily devoured almost all of the positive growth.

With only BSNL, India’s state-owned telco, heading upwards Reliance Jio has firmly placed itself in the strongest position across the market. Bharti Airtel is in somewhat of a downward spiral and it’s difficult to see how it will get itself out of this position, therefore eyes will be cast towards Vodafone Idea for resistance to the Reliance Jio tsunami which is sweeping India.

Looking at these figures alone paints a relatively dreary picture, though you have to appreciate the complicated process the business is currently undertaking. The merger between Vodafone and Idea, which was caused by the jittery upstart Jio, is going through the rationalisation period right now. This is a very complex time and will define the firm’s ability to tackle the Reliance Jio headache in the months to come.

On the money side, we do not foresee this being a massive issue. Vodafone and Idea are merging two massive networks and will soon enough realise the benefits of scale. The subscriber base is massive, providing security for any future investments, and the sale of various different assets (such as the respective tower businesses) provides a hefty war-chest. Taking these factors into account, money should not be an issue, so we have to wonder whether the right people will be put into the right roles and if the right (and flexible enough) strategy will be put in place.

Vodafone Idea is now clearly the market leader in India, but it will only take a couple more months of Reliance Jio continuing on its current path for this lead to be eroded. The momentum is gathering behind Reliance Jio and new products and services (such as fixed broadband) will only add more as convergence ambitions are realised; the emphasis is certainly on Vodafone Idea to prove this isn’t turning into a one-man market.