Bharti Airtel, a leading telecom operator in India, is set to see the highest revenue growth (percentage wise) and average revenue per user (ARPU) growth in Q3 FY25 amongst the private telcos. Indian private telecom operators are going to witness revenue growth on the back of tariff hikes implemented in July 2024. Airtel’s ARPU jumped to Rs 233 from Rs 211 QoQ after the tariff hikes. Now, it is expected to reach Rs 245, said ICICI Securities in a research note.
The research firm said that Airtel’s revenues will grow by 5.3% QoQ, the highest in the industry for any telecom operator in Q3 FY25. Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea (Vi) are expected to report a revenue growth of about 3% and 1%, respectively.
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Subscriber Addition Likely for Jio and Airtel
The brokerage said that Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel could see subscriber addition during the quarter. Vodafone Idea (Vi) is strongly likely to continue losing subscribers. What will be worth noting for Vodafone Idea is the subscriber churn numbers.
Reliance Jio’s ARPU may finally cross the Rs 200 mark as well, leaving only Vi with an ARPU of under Rs 200. Vi’s ARPU is expected to touch Rs 161 figure while Jio’s ARPU is expected to reach Rs 203. Bharti Airtel leads in the ARPU department due to having more premium customers, while Jio and Vi have more of price sensitive users.
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Jio’s subscriber addition is likely going to happen at a slower pace, however, that won’t hurt the telecom operator as its plans are now to increase profitability from operations. Both Jio and Airtel are looking to make their money back from the 5G investments which is in the tune of several thousand crores.
Vi is expected to lose about 4 million customers during the quarter. However, continued 4G investments and a 5G rollout planned for the near future could change things for the telecom operator in the short-to-medium term.
