Bharti Airtel Gains Market Share Post Tariff Hike, Top Pick For CLSA

Bharti Airtel Ltd. has gained market share over the past 12 months post the tariff hikes announced earlier, and remains the top pick for CLSA.

The latest TRAI data reveals India’s mobile sector revenue was up 14% year-on-year to an annualised Rs 2.69 lakh crore, CLSA said in a note on Dec. 4. Bharti Airtel had the highest revenue growth of 19% during the same period last year, while Vodafone Idea Ltd. and Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. reported 2-14% YoY growth, it said.

Jio has the leading share, but only Airtel gained market share in the second quarter, the report said. The top three operators accounted for 95% of sector revenue, with Jio leading at 41.6% of sector revenue market share.

Jio's revenue share was down 51 basis points, while Bharti Airtel saw the highest share gains at 86 basis points, sequentially. "The continued decline in share for Vodafone Idea with continued subscriber losses is concerning," CLSA said.

India's telecom landscape witnessed Reliance Jio, the largest telecom operator, register a staggering net loss of 79.7 lakh subscribers in September, marking a significant shift in the sector.

Most telecom operators proposed tariff hikes in late June, with the revised rates coming into effect from July 4.

The flow through the latest tariff hikes has been highest for Bharti Airtel, CLSA said. This continued trend could result in further market share shifts, with the top two operators already controlling a combined 80% of sector revenue, it said.

This comes on the heels of the TRAI report on a 20% decrease in complaints against unregistered telemarketers and spam calls, dropping from 1.89 lakh in August to 1.51 lakh in October 2024.

This improvement followed TRAI's directive to operators in August to stop voice promotional calls from unregistered senders. The directive included a two-year blacklist for violators.