Analyst corner: Jio stable, remain cautious on Airtel, Vodafone Idea

Telecom industry added 11 million broadband (BB) subscribers in August, recovering from the July lows of 9 million. Jio added 8.5 million users, flat month-on-month though September at 7 million was lower. Bharti saw an uptick and added 3.2 million users vs 0.4 million (July). Vodafone-Idea added just 0.4 million BB users in August. With Jio still below its RMS and subscriber target and VodaIdea BS stretched, we expect focus for Jio to remain on user addition and pricing increases to take another 9-12 months.

BB subscriber addition improves

m-o-m: The mobile industry added 11 million BB users in August, up from 9.4 million in July. The improvement was led largely by Bharti. Jio added 8.5 million users in August though dips in September — Jio added 8.5 million users in August, though the addition dipped in September slightly to 7 million. The quarterly additions though were largely in line.