According to a Centrum Institutional Research report, Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio are expected to continue growing their subscriber base at the expense of Vodafone Idea Limited (Vi), a trend that has persisted for several years and shows no signs of abating.
Jio is expected to add approximately seven million subscribers in the first quarter of financial year 2026-27, while Airtel is projected to add around five million. Vi, by contrast, is forecast to add only around 0.2 million customers in the same period, a rate insufficient to have any material impact on revenues, though still better than outright subscriber losses.
Data usage per customer is expected to remain strong and grow during the quarter, driven by the deepening penetration of 4G and 5G networks. Jio and Airtel have now covered more than 90 per cent of districts with 5G and are focused on deepening coverage within those districts to improve user experience.
Vi, however, is currently adding new sites only at a surface level, meaning its 5G experience is unlikely to match that offered by Jio and Airtel in the near term. The company is expected to accelerate its 5G rollout once it secures the funds it is currently in the process of raising.
