New Delhi, Sep 13 (IANS): Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel are better placed in the telecom space than many other players given their lead in spectrum, cell sites as well as fibre on network, an analysis by brokerage firm CLSA said here on Tuesday.

"We maintain that Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio are better placed given their lead in spectrum, cell sites as well as fibre on network and key will be Reliance Jio subscriber retention starting January 2017," the analysis by CLSA said.

Though 3G and 4G adoption is driving metro subscriber additions, penetration is still low at 20 per cent, implying further growth potential.

"In the changing competitive landscape, operators with higher 3G/4G capacity are favourably placed," CLSA said.

"In the coming months, Jio's offer of free unlimited voice and data on 4G (until December 2016) will likely impact incumbents' subscriber additions but it is also likely to accelerate mobile data adoption and expand data market further," the analysis added.

CLSA forecast a 6 per cent compound annual growth rate for mobile subscriber numbers to reach 1.2 billion with 91 per cent overall penetration and 65 per cent rural penetration over FY16-18.