In Short:
The telecom industry in India saw a 3.87% growth in revenue during the last quarter of FY24, with Airtel and Reliance Jio leading the way. Vodafone Idea and BSNL, however, experienced declines. Airtel and Jio are almost done with their 5G rollout, while Vodafone Idea is soon to follow. Overall, the sector is expected to see an increase in revenue due to rate hikes by private operators.
Telecom Industry Sees Growth in AGR in FY24 Fourth Quarter
The latest data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) reveals that the telecom industry witnessed a 3.87% sequential growth in Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) in the last quarter of FY24, reaching Rs 70,462 crore. This growth was primarily driven by Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio, while Vodafone Idea and BSNL experienced a decline in AGR.
Operator Performance Highlights
Airtel’s quarterly AGR for mobile services increased by 2.30% to Rs 20,951.91 crore, and Jio’s AGR rose by 1.88% to Rs 25,330.97 crore. On the other hand, Vi’s AGR declined by 1.18% to Rs 7,370.75 crore, and BSNL’s AGR was down by 1.01% to Rs 1,991.61 crore.
Additionally, MTNL saw a 10.28% increase in its AGR from the previous quarter.
Department of Telecommunications’ Revenue
The higher AGR resulted in increased license fee and Spectrum Usage Charge (SUC) collections for DoT. The license fee collections rose by 3.76% to Rs 5,637 crore, while SUC collections increased by 2.85% to Rs 869 crore.
Telcos pay 8% of AGR as license fees and around 0.5% of AGR as SUC.
Subscriber and Usage Growth
By the end of March 2024, the total number of telephone subscribers in the country reached 1,199.28 million, with a net increase of 7 million subscribers during the quarter. Wireless subscriber base grew to 1,165.49 million, and wireless tele-density increased to 83.27%.
Overall, the broadband subscribers in the country increased by 2.16% to 924.07 million, with the average revenue per user (Arpu) for wireless services at Rs 153.54 in March.
The all-India average minutes of usage (MoU) per subscriber per month rose by 4.21% sequentially to 995 in the quarter ended March.
