Massive blow to Jio, loses 7.9 million subscribers; could be due to tariff hike

Looks like the last quarter year is not going well for Indian telecom giant Reliance Jio. According to the latest data published by TRAI, Jio has lost around 7.9 million subscribers. And this is not happening with Jio only as Airtel has also lost 14 lakh subscribers and Vi also lost 15 lakh subscribers.

The data also suggests that millions of users have switched to BSNL and this comes as good news for the government-backed telecom service provider. Furthermore, BSNL has gained around 5.5 million users in the period between July to October 2024. The data shared by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) suggest that around 1.5 million customers switched from Vi, Jio, and Airtel to BSNL. In September and October, the number grew to 1.1 million and 0.7 million respectively.

Why this happened?

The main reason behind Reliance Jio losing so many customers is the hike in tariff prices. Jio, when came into existence, kept all the services for free for more than a year. All services like data, calling, and everything were free on Jio.

And even after that, Jio introduced the cheapest 4G plans in the Indian market. This worked wonders for Jio as all other telecom giants were supposed to bring the prices for their plans down. Cut to the present, Jio along with other telecom players increased the prices to a great extent.

This worked as a disadvantageous move for all of them resulting in a loss of subscribers. Amidst all this, BSNL introduced new plans and is continuously expanding its 4G networking in the country which worked in its favor. As of now, we can’t say that all telcos are going to suffer losses continuously. Nonetheless, if the telecom service providers in India don’t cut the prices then they will surely suffer more losses in the future most probably.