The telecom sector recorded a near 4.2% sequential growth in adjusted gross revenue (AGR) in the July-September quarter of FY22, helped by higher mobile recharge volumes and data consumption growth as more subscribers latched into data services while the pandemic continued.
Latest data put out by the telecom regulator showed all the Big 3 telcos – Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea – notched sequential AGR gains in the September quarter.
According to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India‘s (TRAI) performance data for the quarter, Jio’s AGR increased by 3.50% to Rs 18467.47 crore, Airtel’s upped by 7.56% to Rs 14730.85 crore when compared sequentially. Vi’s AGR registered an increase of 1.59% to Rs 6337.58 crore for the same period.
This has resulted in the overall telecom industry AGR rising 4.24% on-quarter to Rs 53,510 crore in the September end quarter.
Higher quarterly AGR has automatically translated into higher licence fee and spectrum usage charge (SUC) takings for the telecom department. Licence fee mop-up climbed 4.08% sequentially to Rs 4,271 crore, while SUC collections rose 5.76% on-quarter to Rs 1,741 crore, data collated by TRAI showed.
Overall sectoral minutes of consumption rose, with the all-India average minutes of usage (MoU) per subscriber per month from wireless services gaining 1.74% % sequentially to 827 in the quarter ended September.
Access services contributed 79.28% of total telecom services AGR in the fiscal second quarter, FY22.
Monthly Average Revenue per User (ARPU) for wireless service increased by 3.34%, from Rs.104.66 in the April-June to Rs.108.16 in the July-September quarter.
