Reliance Jio Continues To Beat Rivals In Adjusted Gross Revenue For March Quarter
However, sequentially, the AGR growth for Jio this time was lower than the 14.6% rise it saw in the December quarter.
Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. maintained its lead over other telecom service providers in adjusted gross revenue for the March 2019 quarter at about Rs 9,839 crore, according to data from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.
Vodafone Idea, the country’s largest telecom operator by subscriber base, recorded an AGR of Rs 7,133.4 crore, a 1.25 percent dip over December quarter, and Bharti Airtel AGR stood at Rs 5,920.2 crore, more than eight percent lower on a sequential basis.
TRAI’s latest data showed that Jio’s adjusted gross revenue or earnings from mobile phone services, rose 3.76 percent sequentially to Rs 9,838.9 crore at the end of March 2019, as the company continued its comfortable lead over its rivals.
However, quarter-on-quarter, AGR growth for Jio this time was lower than the 14.6 percent rise it had experienced in the December quarter.
The government’s share of licence and other fees is determined on the basis of the AGR from access services. Overall, access services contributed over 72 percent of the total AGR of telecom services, with the balancing flowing in from domestic and international long distances services.
According to TRAI’s report, titled ‘Indian Telecom Services Performance Indicator’, measuring telecom performance for March quarter, the number of telephone subscribers in the country declined to 1,183.5 million at the end of March, a decline of 1.2 percent over December quarter, and 1.88 percent when seen year-on-year.
The overall tele-density in India declined from 91.45 as on December 2018 to 90.11 in March, it said.
The monthly average revenue per user for wireless service improved by 1.80 percent to Rs 71.39 in the quarter ended March this year, against Rs 70.13 in the quarter-ended December 2018.
Prepaid ARPU per month increased to Rs 63 in quarter ended March 19 (Rs 60 in quarter ended December 2018) but, notably, the postpaid ARPU per month saw a substantial decline to Rs 261 from Rs 296 during the same period.
The gross revenue and adjusted gross revenue of the telecom service sector for the March 2019 quarter stood at Rs 58,414 crore and Rs 35,932 crore, respectively.
“GR declined by 0.98 percent and AGR declined by 0.34 percent in quarter ended March as compared to previous quarter,” it said. Compared to the year-ago period, the GR and AGR this time was lower by 6.08 percent and 0.66 percent respectively.
The licence fee declined marginally to Rs 2,888 crore in the March quarter, from Rs 2,890 crore in the December quarter.