Telecom industry's Q1 revenue up 11.2%

Telecom services industry revenue grew by a healthy 11.2 per cent to reach Rs 40,834.3 crore in the first quarter of the current fiscal, propelled by growth in mobile data usage.
As per India-telecom report of IIFL, the adjusted gross revenue (AGR) of the industry stood at Rs 36,729.5 crore in the corresponding period last fiscal.
"Since gross revenue (GR) includes inter-operator payments, roaming and access charges, AGR is a better indicator of subscriber spending. Industry revenue grew 11.2 per cent," IIFL said.
The brokerage firm said that for calculating industry level revenue and growth, it has used the Trai's AGR figures.

It said the aggregate industry revenue grew 11.2 per cent YoY, and 6.0 per cent QoQ.
"We believe that with data contributing 12 per cent of revenue and growing at 70 per cent at least for the major telcos, revenue contribution of data to aggregate revenue CAGR should at least be 6-7 per cent. Thus, the double-digit industry revenue growth looks sustainable," it said.

"Top three GSM telcos gained 140bps revenue market share (RMS) year-on-year. BSNL/MTNL and RCom continued to see RMS declines whereas Sistema has seen flat RMS. Telenor/Aircel maintained their strong performance with 44 per cent/22 per cent YoY growth in 1Q FY15 whereas Tata's 16.5 per cent growth was decent," IIFL said.

The brokerage firm said in Bharti's 900 MHz circles, after its RMS had stagnated for two years, there have been material and consistent improvements in the last three quarters.
"Bharti's RMS in its 900MHz was stagnant around 37 per cent from 2Q FY12-2Q FY14. In the past three quarters, there has been a significant and consistent improvement and RMS has increased to 38.5 per cent," IIFL said.
Idea's performance has remained consistently strong in its 900 MHz circles whereas Vodafone's RMS in its 900 circles remained flat at close to 28.5 per cent, it said.
"Bharti, Idea and Vodafone have all maintained market share in their aggregates of respective 1800MHz circles," IIFL added.