Idea worst hit in Q4 among telcos, to report a five fold increase in losses

While ARPU decline will impact all the operators, the sector given RJio's revenues could post a sequential uptick in revenue

Despite higher subscriber additions, the March quarter is expected to be weak for a majority of telecom service providers. Downtrading of high-value customers on the back of price cuts and fall in international terminal rates from February 1, 2018, will result in lower revenues and profits for the operators. On a sequential basis, revenues for Bharti and Idea are expected to fall by 6-8 per cent, while operating profit drop is expected to be 15-22 per cent lower on higher network costs and muted revenues. However, Hetal Gandhi, director, Crisil Research believes that the industry’s revenue is estimated to grow