Reliance Communications (RCOM) reported 38.9 million mobile Internet connections for the quarter ended June 30, 2016 (Q1FY17), which is up by 9.8% from 35.4 million connections in the corresponding quarter last year. When compared to the previous quarter, RCOM’s subscriber base growth remains flat at 38.9 million mobile Internet connections. Interestingly, as RCOM makes the mandatory switch from CDMA to 4G, the company reported total customer base of 99.9 million at the end of Q1FY17, loosing close to 3.7 million connections during the quarter. In comparison, the company had reported a total subscriber base of 103.6 million at the end of last quarter. In the same quarter last year, RCOM had 111.1 million subscribers. Note that RCOM had started discarding incidental mobile Internet users since Q4FY15. Incidental data users are users who have consumed less than 1 MB/month. This followed a similar move from Idea Cellular in Q3-FY14 and Airtel in Q1-FY15. Idea Cellular now only includes those users who consume more than 10 MB/month. 3G/4G connections versus 2G connections RCOM had initiated CDMA to 4G migration pan-India since early April, and by end of June 30th, its combined 3G/4G connection base stood at 25.4 million and now accounts for 65.29% of all data connections. The combined 3G/4G connections were up 4.95% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) from 24.1 million 3G-only connections, and up 41.89% year-on-year (YoY) from 17.9 million 3G-only connections. RCOM’s 2G connection base also decreased to 13.5 million in this quarter, from 14.7 million connection in the previous quarter. RCOM’s 3G connection base had surpassed its…
