In my previous report I have shared the performance of Idea Cellular in terms of Subscriber additions in pre-Jio months & post-Jio months. In this report I will share the comparative performance of Bharti Airtel for same periods, followed by that of Vodafone India in the next report. First let's have a look at the monthly progress of consolidated (all 22 Circles) Total Subscriber base & VLR base for Bharti Airtel from May'16
onwards. In the 3 months prior to Jio Welcom Offer (JWO) launch, Bharti Airtel added a total of 3.17 million subscribers, i.e. an average of about 1.06 million each month. This is nearly double the pace of Idea Cellular's number for the same period. In the 2 months post JWO launch, Bharti Airtel added 4.76 million subscribers, i.e. an average of 2.38 million a month, which is nearly half of what Idea Cellular managed in the same months!! Now let's look at Increase in VLR base. As we can see from the table, Bharti Airtel's VLR base changes have been extremely lumpy in the 3 months prior to JWO launch. In total, Bharti Airtel's VLR base increased by about 2.64 million subscribers in those 3 months, which is about 15% lower than what Idea Cellular managed in those months. But post JWO launch, Bharti Airtel's VLR base has increased by over 4.5 million, which is about 50% higher than Idea Cellular's number for the same period!! This is a very positive development for Bharti Airtel as increase in VLR base could also lead to increase in Network usage. But the important thing to check will be to see if this trend continues of VLR base change numbers goes back to being lumpy for Bharti Airtel in the following months.
Circle-wise Performance: Have a look at the table alongside. Even though Bharti Airtel has seen it's VLR base jump by over 4.5 million during the 2 months of September & October'16, it is quite obvious that only select few circles have done bulk of the contribution. The 9 circles of Bihar, J&K, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, UP(E) & (W) and West Bengal together contributed to a VLR base increase of 4.35 million subscribers, which is nearly 96% of Bharti Airtel's total VLR base increase from all 22 circles. And an even more interesting point is that in 5 of those 9 circles, Bharti Airtel had seen it's VLR base drop in the May to August'16 period. The circles where Bharti Airtel saw negative growth in VLR base during August to October'16 period are Assam, Kolkata, Mumbai & Tamil Nadu. Other circles where Bharti Airtel saw it's pace of VLR base increase decelerate sharply are Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Gujarat, Kerala & North-East. The circles where Bharti Airtel is the most dominant telecom operator with over 40% revenue market share are Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, North-East, Orissa & Rajasthan. The operator has done well in terms of VLR base increase in all these circles except Andhra Pradesh & North-East.
Bharti Airtel already had 3G license & operational 3G network for All Circles, except Kerala, before all the 4G hungama started from June'2015. At that point Airtel had 4G spectrum (either Band 40 or Band 3 or both) in about 12 or 13 circles. Since then Bharti Airtel has been on an aggressive spectrum acquisition spree, even outside Auction process via Spectrum Trading option, to try & have strong 4G spectrum portfolio. India's No.1 Telecom operator spent around Rs.9,000 to 10,000 crores to acquire Band 40 spectrum from Augere and Aircel in a total of about 9 circles and Band 3 spectrum from Videocon in 6 circles. The Aircel spectrum deal was announced a little before the Spectrum Auctions 2016 were to start in October'16, where Bharti Airtel spent another about Rs.13,000 crores to bolster it's Band 1, 3 & 40 spectrum holdings across several key circles. All these spectrum deals has now enabled Bharti Airtel to offer 3G as well as 4G service in all 22 circles of the country, even with multi-carrier mode for both 3G & 4G in several key circles, making it the only operator other than Reliance Jio to be able to offer 4G service across the country on it's own network.
The battle for Data Traffic is very interestingly poised with 4 large operators fighting it out and another 3 or 4 smaller players trying to survive. With total consumption of Giga Bytes in India expected to multiply several times over the next few years, it will be interesting to see who all manage to grab a bigger bite than their existing market shares. The real competition will start only after Reliance Jio starts charging it's customers for service.
Bharti Airtel already had 3G license & operational 3G network for All Circles, except Kerala, before all the 4G hungama started from June'2015. At that point Airtel had 4G spectrum (either Band 40 or Band 3 or both) in about 12 or 13 circles. Since then Bharti Airtel has been on an aggressive spectrum acquisition spree, even outside Auction process via Spectrum Trading option, to try & have strong 4G spectrum portfolio. India's No.1 Telecom operator spent around Rs.9,000 to 10,000 crores to acquire Band 40 spectrum from Augere and Aircel in a total of about 9 circles and Band 3 spectrum from Videocon in 6 circles. The Aircel spectrum deal was announced a little before the Spectrum Auctions 2016 were to start in October'16, where Bharti Airtel spent another about Rs.13,000 crores to bolster it's Band 1, 3 & 40 spectrum holdings across several key circles. All these spectrum deals has now enabled Bharti Airtel to offer 3G as well as 4G service in all 22 circles of the country, even with multi-carrier mode for both 3G & 4G in several key circles, making it the only operator other than Reliance Jio to be able to offer 4G service across the country on it's own network.
The battle for Data Traffic is very interestingly poised with 4 large operators fighting it out and another 3 or 4 smaller players trying to survive. With total consumption of Giga Bytes in India expected to multiply several times over the next few years, it will be interesting to see who all manage to grab a bigger bite than their existing market shares. The real competition will start only after Reliance Jio starts charging it's customers for service.
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