With Idea-Voda merger, telcos may see an escalation in price battle

After consolidation in the sector, Voda-Idea, Airtel and Jio are unlikely to find easy pickings

The country’s top three telecom players continue to face downward pressure on average revenue per user (ARPU) and the trend might continue in the coming months, impacting their profitability as well as share prices, indicate the June quarter results. 

The stocks of Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular have been lagging the key indices such as the BSE Sensex in 2018 — they are down 30-45 per cent versus a rise of over 9 per cent in the Sensex.

In the June quarter, ARPU, the revenue that telecom operators earn from a subscriber, for Airtel, Jio and Vodafone was down between