Reliance Jio Overtakes Vodafone India to Become Second Largest Operator by Revenue

Just 19 months after launching the services to the public, Reliance Jio has become the second largest operator in terms of revenue, pipping Vodafone India from the position. As per the data released by Trai for the quarter that ended on March 31, 2018, the Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) of Jio stood at Rs 6,217.64 crore, while that of leading operator Airtel is Rs 7,086.49. Vodafone India secured an AGR of Rs 4,937 crore, while Idea Cellular settled with Rs 4,033 crore. Jio also managed to narrow down the gap with Airtel as it’s revenues were down by 10% in the first quarter.

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However, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular are waiting for their merger approval from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT). If the merger receives the approval, it will form the largest telecom entity- both in terms of subscribers and revenue. The combined AGR of Idea and Vodafone will be more than that of Airtel and Jio. Notably, Jio’s AGR was up by 15% during the January-March quarter.

Reliance Jio managed to achieve this by creating a tariff war in the telecom sector. While Jio is still winning the tariff war, incumbent telcos are trying to match the new entrant. The Indian telecom industry is currently going through a rough phase with the operators combinedly having a debt of more than Rs 7 lakh crore.

The Mukesh Ambani-led telco has also racked up 200 million (196.2 million at the end of April 2018) subscriber base in just 19 months after opening the services to the public. After conquering the prepaid segment, Jio’s focus is now shifted towards the postpaid segment which alone contributes 20-25% of the industry’s revenue. With its aggressive Rs 199 JioPostpaid plan, the telco is looking to hurt the ARPU and revenues of the incumbent operators- Airtel, Vodafone and Idea.