The TRAI's Revenue figures for March'2019 Quarter are now out. And it's throwing some interesting information.
For the Quarter ending December 2018, Vodafone-Idea was the No.1 operator with an Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR, including NLD, ILD and ISP numbers) figure of Rs.10,377 crores. It was closely followed by Airtel at No.2 with an AGR of Rs.10,146 crores, just about 2.3% shy of the leader. Then came Jio at No.3 with an AGR of Rs.9,644 crores, just about 5% shy of the No.2 player. That means the gap between No.1 and No.3 was just about 7%!! BSNL/MTNL is a distant No.4 with an AGR of Rs.2864 crores.
With competition so tight, coupled with the fact that Reliance Jio continues to add millions of new 4G customers every month, it's Monthly addition figure of 4G customers is larger than the Quarterly addition figures of 4G customers for both Vodafone-Idea and Bharti Airtel, things were set to change in the Revenue Rankings sooner or later.
The Big News this quarter is that Reliance Jio has already overtaken Bharti Airtel to become No.2 in the Revenue Rankings, even though it posted just 4% growth in it's AGR figure Q-o-Q to reach Rs.10,032 crores. The bigger reason being a near 11.5% drop in AGR for Bharti Airtel to reach Rs.8,986 crores. The reasons for such a sharp drop in AGR for India's former No.1 operator is not exactly known. It could be due to some one-time adjustments as well and the AGR figure might bounce back in the next quarter. That we will have to wait & see. Currently we will focus on the numbers that we have.
Vodafone-Idea has managed to hold it's fort with a nominal 0.3% drop in AGR and is now at Rs.10,348 crores. But it is very likely that Vodafone-Idea will lose it's No.1 position to Reliance Jio in the June'19 quarter, unless it manages to ring in some growth for itself. BSNL/MTNL posted a strong 24% Q-o-Q growth in it's AGR figure and it now stands at Rs.3,546 crores.
Bharti Airtel: It managed to report a growth in it's AGR for 10 out of the 22 circles. The circles where it managed to post double digit % growth are: Bihar, Gujarat, North East and West Bengal. Even Orissa and Rajasthan posted healthy growth for Airtel. But at the same time Airtel saw massive drops in AGR figures for important circles like Delhi, Mumbai, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Even Airtel's NLD AGR has seen a drop of 18% Q-o-Q. Karnataka alone contributed 8.5% of Airtel's Total AGR in December'18. And it reported a drop of 15% in AGR for it's biggest contributing circle. Airtel is rapidly expanding it's 4G coverage and re-farming it's 2G & 3G spectrum for use with 4G in many circles to expand capacities. Hopefully this should help bring back some growth in AGR in the coming quarters. Bharti Airtel will also receive a small boost in AGR when Tata Tele's mobile business finally merges with it. That process is in the final stages.
Vodafone-Idea: AGR figures for almost all circles were pretty stable Q-o-Q in case of Vodafone Idea, with only 1 or 2% variations in most cases. Only Bihar circle saw an erosion of nearly 19%. Gujarat, Haryana, Maharashtra and Punjab reported some amount of noticeable growth, but nothing significant. Vodafone-Idea too continues to improve the capacity & reach of it's 4G network, primarily by combining the frequencies of both previous entities. It has the advantage of having the largest pool of 4G-capable spectrum on a combined basis now, after merger. This should translate into capacity advantage sooner or later and then we could see Vodafone-Idea reporting healthy growth in customers as well as revenues.
Reliance Jio: Riding on a strong growth in customer additions across the country, Reliance Jio managed to post a growth of between 2% and 7% for most of the 21 out of the 22 circles, where it reported an increase. It was only the circle of Mumbai where it reported a decline of 1.5% in AGR. With a huge number of Jio Phone as well as Smart Phone users on it's network across all parts of the country, Reliance Jio is certainly experiencing capacity constraints in several regions. I for one am not happy with my experience of Jio service over the last few months. Jio has deployed it's best network only in Urban areas or in areas of high population density and paying capacity. While it has deployed secondary network in rural areas, more focused on catering to Jio Phone users. Jio has the momentum in it's favour currently. But as and when a higher proportion of it's customers start experiencing poor service, it could very well see a slowdown in growth momentum.
For the Quarter ending December 2018, Vodafone-Idea was the No.1 operator with an Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR, including NLD, ILD and ISP numbers) figure of Rs.10,377 crores. It was closely followed by Airtel at No.2 with an AGR of Rs.10,146 crores, just about 2.3% shy of the leader. Then came Jio at No.3 with an AGR of Rs.9,644 crores, just about 5% shy of the No.2 player. That means the gap between No.1 and No.3 was just about 7%!! BSNL/MTNL is a distant No.4 with an AGR of Rs.2864 crores.
With competition so tight, coupled with the fact that Reliance Jio continues to add millions of new 4G customers every month, it's Monthly addition figure of 4G customers is larger than the Quarterly addition figures of 4G customers for both Vodafone-Idea and Bharti Airtel, things were set to change in the Revenue Rankings sooner or later.
Vodafone-Idea has managed to hold it's fort with a nominal 0.3% drop in AGR and is now at Rs.10,348 crores. But it is very likely that Vodafone-Idea will lose it's No.1 position to Reliance Jio in the June'19 quarter, unless it manages to ring in some growth for itself. BSNL/MTNL posted a strong 24% Q-o-Q growth in it's AGR figure and it now stands at Rs.3,546 crores.
Bharti Airtel: It managed to report a growth in it's AGR for 10 out of the 22 circles. The circles where it managed to post double digit % growth are: Bihar, Gujarat, North East and West Bengal. Even Orissa and Rajasthan posted healthy growth for Airtel. But at the same time Airtel saw massive drops in AGR figures for important circles like Delhi, Mumbai, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Even Airtel's NLD AGR has seen a drop of 18% Q-o-Q. Karnataka alone contributed 8.5% of Airtel's Total AGR in December'18. And it reported a drop of 15% in AGR for it's biggest contributing circle. Airtel is rapidly expanding it's 4G coverage and re-farming it's 2G & 3G spectrum for use with 4G in many circles to expand capacities. Hopefully this should help bring back some growth in AGR in the coming quarters. Bharti Airtel will also receive a small boost in AGR when Tata Tele's mobile business finally merges with it. That process is in the final stages.
Vodafone-Idea: AGR figures for almost all circles were pretty stable Q-o-Q in case of Vodafone Idea, with only 1 or 2% variations in most cases. Only Bihar circle saw an erosion of nearly 19%. Gujarat, Haryana, Maharashtra and Punjab reported some amount of noticeable growth, but nothing significant. Vodafone-Idea too continues to improve the capacity & reach of it's 4G network, primarily by combining the frequencies of both previous entities. It has the advantage of having the largest pool of 4G-capable spectrum on a combined basis now, after merger. This should translate into capacity advantage sooner or later and then we could see Vodafone-Idea reporting healthy growth in customers as well as revenues.
Reliance Jio: Riding on a strong growth in customer additions across the country, Reliance Jio managed to post a growth of between 2% and 7% for most of the 21 out of the 22 circles, where it reported an increase. It was only the circle of Mumbai where it reported a decline of 1.5% in AGR. With a huge number of Jio Phone as well as Smart Phone users on it's network across all parts of the country, Reliance Jio is certainly experiencing capacity constraints in several regions. I for one am not happy with my experience of Jio service over the last few months. Jio has deployed it's best network only in Urban areas or in areas of high population density and paying capacity. While it has deployed secondary network in rural areas, more focused on catering to Jio Phone users. Jio has the momentum in it's favour currently. But as and when a higher proportion of it's customers start experiencing poor service, it could very well see a slowdown in growth momentum.
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