Telecom industry AGR shows modest 1.7% rise in Q4 FY25
The
telecom
industry recorded a 1.7% sequential growth in
adjusted gross revenue
(AGR) in the last quarter of FY25, with the impact of last year's tariff increases waning.
Vodafone Idea
and Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) saw sequential declines in their mobile service revenues.
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (
Trai
) data showed for the January-March quarter, the AGR of the industry stood at ₹79,226 crore, a tad higher than ₹77,934 crore in the preceding quarter. Access or mobile services contributed 84.02% of the telecom industry AGR while the remaining amount came from national long distance (NLD), international long distance (ILD), internet service providers (ISPs), etc.
In terms of access services, Reliance
Jio
has extended the gap with
Bharti Airtel
in terms of AGR growth. Jio's AGR climbed 3.2% to ₹29,464.7 crore in the Q4 from ₹28,542.8 crore in the preceding Q3. Airtel's AGR climbed about 1% to ₹26,324.2 crore.
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The gap between the top two mobile operators had narrowed in the preceding quarter.
After reporting a rise in their access services AGR in the FYQ3, both Vodafone Idea and state-run BSNL witnessed a decline in Q4. The AGR of Vodafone Idea declined 3.8% in Q4 to ₹7,653.5 crore from ₹7,958.5 crore in the preceding Q3. Similarly, BSNL's AGR was down 2.3% to ₹2,239.5 crore from ₹2,292.5 crore in the reported period.
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Higher quarterly AGR translated into higher license fee and spectrum usage charge (SUC) collections for the department of telecommunications (DoT). The license fee mop-up rose 1.7% sequentially to ₹6,340 crore, while SUC collections rose 1.2% on-quarter to ₹1,000 crore, data collated by the regulator showed.
Telcos annually pay 8% of AGR license fees while the overall SUC payout is in the range of 1-3% after the government had said airwaves acquired from the first 5G spectrum auction onwards will not attract any SUC.
Overall, sectoral minutes of consumption increased, with the all-India average minutes of usage (MoU) per subscriber per month from wireless services increased 1.6% on-quarter to 1026 minutes in the March quarter.
The Trai report on the telecom industry's fiscal fourth quarter performance also indicated that monthly average revenue per user (ARPU) from wireless services increased 0.6% sequentially to ₹182.9.
Data collated by the regulator showed the country's internet user base decreased in the March quarter by 0.1% sequentially to 969.1 million.
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