According to Fitch Ratings, revenue market share in the telecom sector is getting consolidated with Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel. On the other hand, Vodafone Idea is continuing to lose 10 million to 15 million users per quarter.
Reportedly, Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel have recorded strong revenue and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) growth in the quarter ended June 2020 (Q1 FY21) owing to tariff growth and higher data usage.
While Reliance Jio recorded year-on-year (YoY) growth of 34 per cent and 55 per cent in revenue and EBITDA, respectively, in Q1 FY21, Bharti Airtel reported revenue and EBITDA growth of 19 per cent and 35 per cent, respectively, during the period under consideration.
Fitch also noted that robust growth will be driven by sustained higher tariffs, feature-phone user migration to 4G and high monthly data usage of 12 GB to 16 GB per user, one of the highest globally.
Further, data traffic grew by 20 per cent to 30 per cent as there was an increased demand for data connectivity and remote access amidst the COVID-19 induced lockdown. This surge in data traffic more than offset the slower migration of feature-phone users to 4G as smartphones sales declined by 48 per cent in Q1 FY21.
