Telecom Operators' Revenue Jumps 11% In September Quarter After Tariff Hikes
In July, private telecom operators Bharti Airtel Ltd., Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea Ltd. raised their mobile service tariffs by 11–25%.
Telecom operators' gross revenue rose 11% year-on-year to Rs 91,426 crore in the September quarter, a period marked by tariff hikes by mobile service providers, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.
Adjusted gross revenue, which is used by the government to calculate levies, grew 13% to Rs 75,310 crore from Rs 66,583 crore in the same quarter last year, TRAI said in a report on Wednesday.
In July, private telecom operators Bharti Airtel Ltd., Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea Ltd. raised their mobile service tariffs by 11–25%, which led to a boost in the average revenue per user. The move led to revenue growth, but the operators also saw a decline in subscribers.
The report highlighted that the monthly ARPU for mobile services increased 9.6% to Rs 172.6 in the September quarter, compared to Rs 157.5 in the June quarter. On a year-on-year basis, the monthly ARPU grew by 15% during this period.
The ARPU for pre-paid connection, which dominates the mobile phone services, stood at Rs 171 and for the post-paid segment it was Rs 190.67 in September quarter.
The mobile subscriber base declined by 1.68 crore on quarter-on-quarter basis to 115.37 crore in the July-September period from 117 crore in June quarter.
Airtel's adjusted gross revenue grew 24% to Rs 24,632.84 crore during September quarter, while Jio reported 14% increase in the AGR to Rs 27,652.7 crore.
VIL's AGR grew 4.39% to Rs 7,837 crore from Rs 7,507.7 crore and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd.'s was up 1.54% to Rs 1,996.8 crore. State-owned and debt-ridden Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd's revenue fell 9.41% to Rs 152.8 crore during the quarter from Rs 168.7 crore a year ago.
The government's collection in the form of licence fee increased 13% to Rs 6,023 crore during the September quarter from Rs 5,326 crore a year ago.
The spectrum usage charges collected by the government increased 13% to Rs 946 crore from Rs 836 crore on year-on-year basis.
(With Inputs From PTI)
