As per the latest data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), spectrum usage charge (SUC) collections for the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) plunged 42 per cent sequentially to Rs 8.11 billion during the quarter ended (QE) December 2022, after the government stopped charging this statutory fee on airwaves acquired from the 5G auction onwards. However, the government’s licence fee collections rose 2.24 per cent on a quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) basis to Rs 50.31 billion during QE December 2022.
Further, the telecom sector recorded a 1.49 per cent sequential growth in adjusted gross revenue (AGR) in the reported quarter to Rs 629.04 billion, indicating a tapering of the gains from the tariff hikes taken by private operators in November 2021. Bharti Airtel’s quarterly AGR (or revenue from licensed services) grew 2.22 per cent sequentially to Rs 182.9 billion during the quarter under consideration, while the AGR for Reliance Jio rose 1.78 per cent to Rs 225.86 billion. Vodafone Idea Limited’s (Vi) AGR fell 2.01 per cent to Rs 73.28 billion. Gross revenue (GR) and applicable gross revenue (ApGR) of the telecom sector for the QE December 2022 stood at Rs 881 billion and Rs 766.27 billion, respectively. GR increased by 5.25 per cent, while ApGR increased by 2.56 per cent as compared to the previous quarter.
TRAI’s report on the telecom industry’s fiscal third-quarter performance also indicated that monthly average revenue per user (ARPU) from wireless services rose 2.79 per cent on a QoQ basis to Rs 141.14. In addition, the data also showed that the total number of internet subscribers increased from 850.95 million from QE September 2022 to 865.9 million during QE December 2022, registering a QoQ growth of 1.76 per cent. Of them, 833.49 million were wireless internet users and 32.41 million were wired users.
