As per the recent performance indicator report (PIR) released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the telecom industry recorded a sequential growth of 4.24 per cent in adjusted gross revenue (AGR) in the quarter ended (QE) September 2021.
On the operators’ front, Jio’s AGR stood at Rs 184.67 billion, witnessing a rise of 3.50 per cent on a quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) basis. Further, Airtel and Vodafone Idea reported an increase of 7.56 per cent and 1.59 per cent in their AGR, which stood at Rs 147.30 billion and Rs 63.38 billion, respectively. This has resulted in the overall telecom industry AGR rising 4.24 per cent on QoQ basis to Rs 535.1 billion in the QE September 2021.
India’s internet subscriber base registered a quarterly growth of 0.07 per cent to 834.29 million. As per TRAI data, higher quarterly AGR has automatically translated into higher licence fee and spectrum usage charge (SUC) takings for the telecom department. Licence fee mop-up climbed 4.08 per cent sequentially to Rs 42.71 billion, while SUC collections rose 5.76 per cent on-quarter to Rs 17.41 billion.
The overall sectoral minutes of consumption rose, with the all-India average minutes of usage (MoU) per subscriber per month from wireless services gaining 1.74 per cent sequentially to 827 in the quarter ended September 2021. Access services contributed 79.28 per cent of total telecom services AGR in the fiscal second quarter, FY22 monthly average revenue per user (ARPU) for wireless service increased by 3.34 per cent, from Rs 104.66 in the April-June 2021 to Rs 108.16 in the July-September quarter, 2021.
