What next for telecom investors

The dynamics of the telecom business are unusual: Service providers make huge front-loaded investments to get spectrum, create infrastructure and set up service personnel

The telecom price war triggered by the launch of Jio has forced drastic consolidation. In effect, three service providers are left. There's a trend of lower ARPU (average revenue per user). Two of the three are suffering falling revenues. All three may be cash-flow negative. Each must be prepared to spend more.

Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJIL), a subsidiary of Reliance Industries (RIL), declared a net profit of Rs 6.12 billion in April-June 2018. Numbers are hard to decode. RJIL has an unusually low rate of depreciation. The multiple "schemes", structured with one-time payments for long-term subscriptions, makes for flexibility in