Reliance Jio’s subscriber momentum slows down

New telecom entrant Reliance Jio's subscribers' tally slowed down over a six-month period with only 5.8 million new additions in March, Hong Kong-based UBS recently said.

Citing sector regulator Trai data, UBS Securities in a statement said that Jio added only 5.8 million broadband consumers in March when compared to February (12.2 million) and January (18.48 million) user additions.

Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's telecom business Jio has progressively seen decline in net subscriber additions from October 2016 to February 2017 with freebies nearing to an end.

With March numbers taking a maximum hit, the Mumbai-based telco added 16.26 million users in November, 20.28 million in December 2016, 18.48 million in January, and 12.21 million in February this year.

The UBS Securities Asia, an affiliate of UBS AG, report also said that incumbent telcos countered Reliance Jio's competitive pricing.

Sunil Mittal-driven Bharti Airtel has though added only 3.58 million broadband customers, with the study pointing out that Vodafone India and Idea Cellular have also shown recovery in March.

In March, Indian arm of the UK-based Vodafone added 2.10 million subscribers with a total mobile broadband reaching 37.71 million and Aditya Birla group's Idea Cellular had net additions of 1.83 million customers taking its base to 24.70 million.

Billionaire Mukesh Ambani-owned Jio launched commercial telecom services in September last on the back of free voice and data offer under introductory schemes, and on March 31 unveiled paid services under Prime membership.