Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd.'s revenue market share grew sharply in the three months through September after two straight quarters of muted growth.
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led telecom operator's revenue market share—the sum of adjusted gross revenue and national long-distance revenue—grew by 350 basis points, the most in the past three quarters, according to data compiled by BloombergQuint from Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. That gain has largely been at the expense of the state-run BSNL.
BSNL lost nearly 353 basis points in market share—the most in at least 22 quarters—as its national long-distance revenue fell 71 percent over the previous quarter.
Among private operators, Bharti Airtel Ltd.'s market share rose for the second straight quarter, while Vodafone Idea Ltd. lost market share for the sixth quarter on the trot.
Bharti Airtel's revenue market share rose as fewer customers left its network, data subscribers increased and its average revenue per user remained largely stable. Vodafone Idea's revenue market share declined as its subscribers switched to other networks and its average revenue per user continued to remain the lowest among private players.
For Reliance Jio, the growth in market share could be due to strong subscriber additions. Unlike previous quarters, Reliance Jio managed to garner more revenue from metros over non-metros in the three months through September.
Asia's richest man hurt the revenue and profits of older rivals when he entered the Indian telecom sector with his telecom upstart nearly three years ago by offering free services followed by dirt-cheap plans to win subscribers. The launch of Jio's 4G-enabled feature phone, JioPhone, helped consolidate the operator's foothold in the market.
The telecom sector's revenue declined after reporting growth for the last three consecutive quarters, largely led by the near-44 percent drop in BSNL's revenue in the September quarter.
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