Telecom companies' key revenue metric improves June to Sept: Regulator.

Vodafone Idea's monthly average revenue per user jumped 9.73 per cent to Rs 6,435.79 crore

Telecom companies' monthly average revenue per user (ARPU), a key metric of performance, for wireless service increased by 7.49 per cent from Rs 90.1 in June 2020 to Rs 96.87 in September 2020. On a year-on-year basis, the monthly ARPU for mobile services increased by more than 30 per cent in the July-September quarter, after the start of the unlock process.

Prepaid ARPU per month increased from Rs 84 for quarter ended June 2020 to Rs 90 in quarter ended September 2020 and Postpaid ARPU per month also increased from Rs 224 in June to Rs 234 in September, latest date by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said.

The sector reported a quarter-on-quarter growth of 3.6 per cent in adjusted gross revenue (AGR) in the second quarter of the current fiscal.

Reliance Jio’s AGR, rose 4.29 per cent on quarter to Rs 15,915.14 crore in the July-September period, while Bharti Airtel’s grew 6.71 per cent to Rs 10,764.90 crore and that of Vodafone Idea jumped 9.73 per cent to Rs 6,435.79 crore, said TRAI.

Higher quarterly AGR essentially means higher revenue for the Union government in the form of licence fee and spectrum usage charge (SUC).

 

Income from licence fee rose 3.7 per cent sequentially to Rs 3,656 crore, while SUC collections were up 5.94 per cent on-quarter to Rs 1,451 crore, TRAI data said.

Telecom service providers pay 8 per cent of their AGR as licence fees and 3-5 per cent towards SUC to the government, annually.

Access services contributed 79 per cent of total telecom services AGR in the fiscal second quarter, FY21.

The number of telephone subscribers in India increased from 1,160.52 million at the end of June, 2020 to 1,168.66 million at the end of September 2020. The overall Tele-density in India also increased from 85.85% as in quarter ended June to 86.22% as in quarter ended September 2020.

Telephone subscribers in urban areas increased from 636.83 million on June 30, 2020 to 644.26 million on September 30, 2020 and Urban telephone density also increased from 137.35 per cent to 138.25 per cent during the same period.

Rural telephone subscribers increased from 523.69 million at the end of June, 2020 to 524.39 million at the end of September 2020 however, Rural telephone density remained same i.e. 58.96 per cent, as it was during last quarter June, 2020.