As per the recent performance indicator report (PIR) released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the telecom industry recorded 3.87 per cent sequential growth in adjusted gross revenue (AGR) in the fourth quarter (Q4) of the fiscal year 2023-24 (FY24) to Rs 704.62 billion, on the back of growth by Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio, even as Vodafone Idea Limited (Vi) along with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) continue to witness a decline in its mobile services AGR.
The data stated that Airtel’s quarterly AGR for access licensed services or mobile services grew 2.3 per cent sequentially to Rs 209.51 billion in Q4 FY24, while Jio’s AGR rose 1.88 per cent to Rs 253.30 billion in the reported period. In addition, Vi saw its access services AGR slip by 1.18 per cent to Rs 73.7 billion. Similarly, BSNL’s AGR was down 1.01 per cent to Rs 19.91 billion, and access services AGR of MTNL rose 10.28 per cent to Rs 1.56 billion from Rs 1.42 billion in the preceding quarter, though the base is very low.
As per the data, of the total AGR of the telecom industry, access services contributed 80.24 per cent at Rs 565.39 billion while national long distance (NLD) AGR stood at 70.96 billion and internet service provider (ISP) AGR at Rs 48.7 billion.
The data further noted that higher quarterly AGR translated into higher licence fee and spectrum usage charge (SUC) collections for the Department of Telecommunications (DoT). The licence fee mop-up climbed 3.76 per cent sequentially to Rs 56.37 billion while SUC collections rose 2.85 per cent on quarter to Rs 8.69 billion.
