After witnessing a decline in the preceding quarter, the adjusted gross income (AGR) of telecom sector rose 3.58% sequentially to Rs 45,707 crore for the July-September 2020 period as normalcy returned to the sector with lifting of Covid-led lockdowns across the nation. The AGR in the preceding April-June period stood at Rs 44,128 crore.
During the reported period, AGR for access services, also named mobile services, rose for all the major operators, with maximum development price witnessed by Vodafone Idea followed by Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio and BSNL. It need to be pointed out that in the April-June period, when the complete nation was below lockdown, Vodafone Idea’s mobile services income was down 25.44%.
As per information shared by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), Reliance Jio is the major mobile operator in terms of income with access services AGR of Rs 15,915.14 crore for the July-September quarter, up 4.29% from Rs 15,259.91 crore in the preceding period. Bharti Airtel’s access services AGR rose 6.71% to Rs 10,764.90 crore in the reported period as compared to Rs 10,088.46 crore in the preceding period.
Similarly, Vodafone Idea’s AGR for mobile services improved by 9.73% to Rs 6,435.79 crore for the reported period as compared to Rs 5,865.36 crore in the preceding quarter. State-run BSNL’s mobile services AGR improved by 2.10% to Rs 2,185.39 crore from Rs 2,140.40 crore. Even MTNL managed to boost its mobile services AGR by 8.14% in the course of the period at Rs 364.47 crore from Rs 337.04 crore.
If we examine on yearly basis, the AGR of telecom sector improved by 22.41%. The AGR of the sector stood at Rs 37,338 crore in July-September 2019 period.
Meanwhile, the licence charge receipts also rose 3.70 sequentially to Rs 3,656 crore as compared to Rs 3,526 crore in the preceding quarter whilst spectrum usage charges improved by 5.94% to Rs 1,451 crore from Rs 1,369 crore.
The typical income per user (ARPU) for mobile services improved to Rs 103.87 per month for the September quarter as compared to Rs 98.01 in the June quarter. The share of BSNL/MTNL in mobile services AGR stood at 7.02%.