Despite Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio hit, incumbents cling to market share

Airtel, Vodafone, BSNL increase subscriber share while Idea manages to retain

The top three telecom operators have managed to guard their subscriber market share in 2017 against the onslaught of Reliance Jio but revenue and profitability have eroded substantially, leading to about 19 per cent decline in the industry’s adjusted gross revenue (AGR).

According to the yearly report of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), the average revenue per user (ARPU) per month in the industry declined to Rs 81.39 in 2017 against Rs 118.65 in 2016. A striking thing in the composition of ARPU in 2017 is the decline in voice share. In 2016, when the ARPU of the industry