RJio becomes second largest telco by revenue, adds most subscribers in June

Reliance Jio Infocomm, a Mukesh Ambani-owned telecommunication service provider, has surpassed Vodafone India to become India’s second largest telecom operator by revenue market share, according to a report on financial data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) for the second quarter of 2018.

A recent report by Crisil also highlighted that the profits of the top three incumbent telecom firms - Airtel, Idea and Vodafone - have halved in the past three years with a 1,000 bps plunge in operating margins, and a recovery is seen only from FY20 when consolidation in the industry is complete.

The corrosive effect of the competition, which began after Reliance Jio entered the fray in September 2016, will see gross revenue of the top three incumbents plunging by 14-16 per cent this financial year as they are forced to focus on retaining subscriber base, added the Crisil report.