Telcos’ AGR rises 4.24% to Rs 53,510 cr in July-September

The adjusted gross revenue (AGR) of the telecom industry rose 4.24% sequentially to Rs 53,510 crore for the July-September 2021 period, primarily on the back of increased mobile revenues of the operators.

The access services or mobile services AGR of all private telcos – Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea – rose during the period, while that of state-run BSNL witnesses a drop, showed data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).

The total AGR of the industry in the preceding April-June 2021 period stood at Rs 51,335 crore.

The rise in AGR was much higher when compared on a year-on-year basis with a jump of 17.07%. The industry’s AGR stood at Rs 45,707 crore in the July-September 2020 period.

According to the data shared by Trai, Reliance Jio saw a jump of 3.50% in its mobile services AGR to Rs 18,467.47 crore during July-September compared with Rs 17,843.56 crore in the preceding April-June period. Bharti Airtel’s access services AGR rose 7.56% to Rs 14,730.85 crore from Rs 13,696.06 crore, while that of Vodafone Idea rose by 1.59% to Rs 6,337.58 crore from Rs 6,238.18 crore. State-run BSNL, though, witnessed a decline of 8.86% in its access services AGR to Rs 1,934.73 crore for the reported period against Rs 2,122.75 crore in the preceding quarter.

Jio was the top mobile operator in terms of revenue and subscribers followed by Bharti, Vodafone Idea and BSNL.

Meanwhile, the licence fee receipts rose 4.08% sequentially to Rs 4,271 crore against Rs 4,103 crore in the preceding quarter while spectrum usage charges increased 5.76% to Rs 1,741 crore from Rs 1,646 crore in the preceding quarter.

The monthly average revenue per user (Arpu) for mobile services increased to Rs 108.16 per month for the September 2021 quarter against Rs 104.66 per month in the June 2021 quarter.