Airtel, Jio help telecom industry record 3.87% sequential growth in AGR in last quarter of FY24 to Rs 70,462 cr

New Delhi: The telecom industry recorded 3.87% sequential growth in adjusted gross revenue (AGR) in the fiscal last quarter of FY24 to Rs 70,462 crore, on the back of growth by Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio, even as beleaguered Vodafone Idea along with state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) continue to witness a decline in its mobile services AGR.

Airtel and Reliance Jio have almost completed their 5G rollouts while Vodafone Idea will soon commence the launch of the latest telecom technology. The revenue of the sector is set to increase further as all the private telecom operators have increased headline rates in the range of 11-25%, say analysts.

Latest operator performance data put out by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Thursday showed Airtel’s quarterly AGR for access licensed services or mobile services grew 2.30% sequentially to Rs 20,951.91 crore in the January-March period, while Jio’s AGR rose 1.88% to Rs 25,330.97 crore in the reported period.

Vodafone Idea (Vi) saw its access services AGR slip by 1.18% to Rs 7,370.75 crore. Similarly, BSNL’s AGR was down 1.01% to Rs 1,991.61 crore. Interestingly, access services AGR of MTNL rose 10.28% to Rs 156.61 crore from Rs 142 crore 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% at Rs 56,539.81 crore while NLD (national long distance) AGR stood at 7,096.44 crore and ISP (internet service provider) AGR at Rs 4,870.94 crore.

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% sequentially to Rs 5,637 crore while SUC collections rose 2.85% on-quarter to Rs 869 crore, data collated by the regulator showed.

Telcos annually pay 8% of AGR as licence fees while the overall SUC payout is around 0.5% of AGR after the government had said airwaves acquired from the last 5G auction onwards won’t attract any SUC.

Overall, the broadband subscribers (wireline+wireless) in the country increased by 2.16% to 924.07 million at the end of March. The monthly average revenue per user (Arpu) for wireless services stood at Rs 153.54 at the end of March as compared to Rs 152.55 in December quarter.

Overall sectoral minutes of consumption rose, with the all-India average minutes of usage (MoU) per subscriber per month rose by 4.21% sequentially to 995 in the quarter ended March.

The number of telephone subscribers in the country increased to 1,199.28 million at the end of March 2024 from 1,190.33 million at the end of December, registering a rate of growth 0.75% over the previous quarter.

With a net increase of 7 million subscribers during the quarter, the total wireless subscriber base increased to 1,165.49 million at the end of March. Wireless tele-density increased to 83.27% at the end of March 2024.