The adjusted gross income (AGR) of telecom sector rose 4.19% to Rs 47,623 crore for the October-December 2020 period on the back of enhanced revenues for mobile operators. The AGR in the July-September 2020 period stood at Rs 45,707 crore.
The rise in AGR was a lot sharper when compared to year-on-year basis with a jump of 16.50%. The AGR of telecom sector stood at Rs 40,877 crore in October-December 2019 period. The telcos had enhanced tariffs in the variety of 20% to 42% in December 2019. While Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel new prices became effective from December 3, 2019, Jio’s revised tariffs came into force from December 6, 2019. The telcos have not enhanced prices following that.
As per information shared by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), through October-December 2020 period, AGR for access services, also known as mobile services, rose for all the private operators, whilst state-run BSNL witnessed a decline sequentially. In terms of access services AGR, the maximum development price was witnessed by Reliance Jio, which enhanced its AGR by 7.96% to Rs 17,181.65 crore in the reported period as compared to Rs 15,915.14 crore in the preceding July-September period. Bharti Airtel’s access services AGR rose 5.34% to Rs 11,340.19 crore from Rs 10,764.90 crore in the preceding quarter whilst that of Vodafone Idea as well rose 2.37% to Rs 6,588.46 crore from Rs 6,435.79 crore. BSNL even though witnessed a decline of 2.30% in its access services AGR to Rs 2,135.17 crore from Rs 2,185.39 crore in preceding quarter. For MTNL, the access services AGR rose to Rs 369.84 crore from Rs 364.47 crore in the preceding period.
Reliance Jio is the top rated mobile operator in terms of income and subscribers followed by Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and BSNL.
Meanwhile, the licence charge receipts also rose 4.19% sequentially to Rs 3,809 crore as compared to Rs 3,656 crore in the preceding quarter whilst spectrum usage charges enhanced by 5.99% to Rs 1,538 crore from Rs 1,451 crore.
The month-to-month typical income per user (ARPU) for mobile services enhanced to Rs 108.78 per month for the December quarter as compared to Rs 103.87 in the September quarter. The share of BSNL/MTNL in mobile services AGR stood at 6.55%.