According to the latest data put out by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), Bharti Airtel has become the only operator in India to register sequential adjusted gross revenue (AGR) gain in Q4 FY21 or the March quarter of 2021. At the same time, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea (Vi) saw a decline in their AGR Quarter-on-Quarter (QoQ). It is worth noting that overall AGR of the telecom sector saw sequential growth of 2.03% in the March quarter. This happened despite the removal of revenues from the interconnect usage charges (IUC) at the starting of the quarter.
Bharti Airtel Quarterly AGR Up By 15.07%
Bharti Airtel saw its quarterly AGR (adjusted gross revenues) rising by 15.07% to Rs 13,049.44 crore in Q4 FY21. At the same time, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea saw a 4.42% and 6.62% decline in AGR during the same period. Reliance Jio’s AGR or revenue from licensed services fell to Rs 16,422.83 crore, while Vodafone Idea’s AGR felling to Rs Rs 6,152.25 crore, respectively.
The great thing was that the industry’s total AGR (adjusted gross revenues) grew 2.03% sequentially to Rs 48,587 crore in Q4 FY21. This wasn’t just good news for the sector, but also for the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) which got the opportunity to collect more from the telcos. The DoT took 4.44% more in licensee fees from the telcos, which amounted to Rs 3,979 crore, and the spectrum usage charges (SUC) also rose by 0.19% to Rs 1,540 crore.
For the unaware, the telcos pay 8% of their AGR (adjusted gross revenues) annually in the form of licensee fees and also 3% to 5% SUC to the government. As per the TRAI data, the monthly ARPU for the sector grew by 1.9% QoQ to Rs 103.58. The ARPU for the sector is further expected to increase since the telcos are aiming for tariff hikes and have also removed their base plans.
