Telecom Industry Growth Driven by Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio

By siliconindia  |  Tuesday, 23 April 2024, 06:31:37 PM IST

Telecom Industry Growth Driven by Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio
The Indian telecom industry saw a 1.88% sequential growth in adjusted gross revenue (AGR) to Rs 67,835 crore in the October-December quarter, primarily driven by expansion of 5G services by Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio. State-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL) also experienced growth in its AGR for mobile services, while Vodafone Idea continued to face challenges with a decline in AGR.
Data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) indicated that access or mobile services contributed 82.07% of the total AGR, amounting to Rs 55,669.76 crore. National long-distance (NLD) AGR stood at Rs 6,523.30 crore, while internet service provider (ISP) AGR reached Rs 3,881.79 crore.
In the mobile services sector, Bharti Airtel's quarterly AGR rose 3.22% sequentially to Rs 20,480.58 crore, while Jio experienced an increase of 2.67% to Rs 24,862.85 crore. In contrast, Vodafone Idea's AGR declined by 0.65% to Rs 7,459.08 crore. BSNL's AGR for access services grew by 2.31% to Rs 2,011.84 crore as the company works on rolling out 4G services through a locally developed telecom stack by TCS.
The higher quarterly AGR resulted in increased licence fee and spectrum usage charge (SUC) collections for the Department of Telecommunications (DoT). The licence fee increased 2.01% sequentially to Rs 5,433 crore, while SUC collections rose 1.06% quarter-on-quarter to Rs 845 crore.
Telcos are required to pay 8% of AGR as licence fees and a SUC payout below 1% of AGR after the government announced that airwaves acquired from the last 5G auction onwards would not incur any SUC.
In terms of subscribers, broadband subscribers (wireline and wireless) in India grew by 2.21% to 904.54 million by the end of December. The monthly average revenue per user (ARPU) for wireless services was Rs 152.55 at the end of December, compared to Rs 149.66 in the previous quarter.
The total number of telephone subscribers in the country rose to 1,190.33 million at the end of December 2023, registering a growth rate of 0.78% over the previous quarter. The total wireless subscriber base increased by 8.34 million during the quarter to reach 1,158.49 million by the end of December. Wireless tele-density also improved, rising to 82.95% at the end of December 2023.

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