Telecom industry AGR rises 4.19% to Rs 47,623 cr for Oct-Dec 2020

For MTNL, the access services AGR rose to Rs 369.84 crore from Rs 364.47 crore in the preceding period.

The adjusted gross revenue (AGR) of telecom industry rose 4.19% to Rs 47,623 crore for the October-December 2020 period on the back of increased revenues for mobile operators. The AGR in the July-September 2020 period stood at Rs 45,707 crore.

The rise in AGR was much sharper when compared to year-on-year basis with a jump of 16.50%. The AGR of telecom industry stood at Rs 40,877 crore in October-December 2019 period. The telcos had increased tariffs in the range of 20% to 42% in December 2019. While Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel new rates became effective from December 3, 2019, Jio’s revised tariffs came into force from December 6, 2019. The telcos have not increased rates after that.

As per data shared by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), during October-December 2020 period, AGR for access services, also called mobile services, rose for all the private operators, while state-run BSNL witnessed a decline sequentially. In terms of access services AGR, the maximum growth rate was witnessed by Reliance Jio, which increased its AGR by 7.96% to Rs 17,181.65 crore in the reported period as compared to Rs 15,915.14 crore in the preceding July-September period. Bharti Airtel’s access services AGR rose 5.34% to Rs 11,340.19 crore from Rs 10,764.90 crore in the preceding quarter while that of Vodafone Idea too rose 2.37% to Rs 6,588.46 crore from Rs 6,435.79 crore. BSNL though witnessed a decline of 2.30% in its access services AGR to Rs 2,135.17 crore from Rs 2,185.39 crore in preceding quarter. For MTNL, the access services AGR rose to Rs 369.84 crore from Rs 364.47 crore in the preceding period.

Reliance Jio is the top mobile operator in terms of revenue and subscribers followed by Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and BSNL.

Meanwhile, the licence fee receipts also rose 4.19% sequentially to Rs 3,809 crore as compared to Rs 3,656 crore in the preceding quarter while spectrum usage charges increased by 5.99% to Rs 1,538 crore from Rs 1,451 crore.

The monthly average revenue per user (ARPU) for mobile services increased to Rs 108.78 per month for the December quarter as compared to Rs 103.87 in the September quarter. The share of BSNL/MTNL in mobile services AGR stood at 6.55%.