After rising sharply to 21m in Jan-19, the sector's 3G/4G subscriber additions normalised to 10m, taking the 3G/4G subscriber base to 532m. 3G/4G subscribers now form 45% of reported industry mobile subscriber base.
Of the 10m additions, we estimate that c.5m additions were from smartphone users and remaining were JioPhone additions.
The reported 3G/4G additions were led by Jio at 8m and Bharti Airtel at 2m. Vodafone Idea added 0.4m 3G/4G subscribers in Feb-19.
Over the past year, Bharti's push on bundled plans is helping the operator gain 3ppt share in 3G/4G smartphone subscribers to 24%.
With India mobile a three-player oligopoly and imminent recovery in sector revenues driven by stability in tariffs and rising data adoption, we remain positive on Jio which will emerge as a leading telco in 2019 and also Bharti, given its strong market-share defence and inevitable turn in revenues
