Increased Data Consumption Fuels Telecom Sector Expansion, Predict Industry Experts
In the dynamic world of telecommunications, a significant shift is underway in India. The industry is moving away from a relentless pursuit of growth and instead, is focusing on monetization, with opportunities in 5G adoption, fixed wireless access, and bundled digital content offerings.
This change in strategy comes as mobile number portability requests touched an all-time high of 15.4 million in July, indicating intense competition among operators. Despite the high churn, some players are thriving. Jio, for instance, continued to register robust home broadband additions of 0.93 million in July, driven by its aggressive push of JioAirFiber. Airtel too is seeing steady gains, with strong active user additions of 0.8 million in July.
Meanwhile, Vodafone Idea and BSNL are facing challenges, with further declines in subscribers. The market construct remains favourable for the top two players, aided by tariff repair and rising Arpu (average revenue per user). By the end of July, Jio's fixed broadband base expanded to around 21 million, nearly double of Airtel's 11.5 million.
The focus has shifted from connecting the unconnected to deepening engagement with existing users and scaling broadband services. The July data suggests that the market for new connections could be nearing saturation, particularly in rural areas where all operators reported subscriber losses.
The telecom industry in the domestic market is experiencing a shift, with growth primarily driven by increasing data consumption and higher-value services. All three telcos are seeing a steady increase in per capita data consumption, with Jio's touching 40GB per month.
Mobile subscriber growth slowed significantly in July, with the industry adding around half a million new wireless users compared to an average of 2-3 million in previous months. This slowdown suggests that the market for new connections could be nearing saturation.
Despite no specific analysts being directly identified as announcing the next phase of growth in the telecommunications sector must come from data monetization rather than an increase in new subscribers, the industry trend is clear. The future of India's telecom story lies in driving more data per subscriber, not just adding more subscribers.
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