India’s latest telecom entrant Reliance Jio has eaten into the revenues of other telecom operators and was also the reason behind the start of the data tariff war back in late 2016. Now the latest stats reveal that the Mukesh Ambani led telecom operator has witnessed a rise in its revenue market share for the sixth consecutive quarter. At the same time, Vodafone Idea Ltd has been losing out on its subscribers as well as revenue market share, thus hinting that Reliance Jio’s gain has come at the cost of VIL’s loss in RMS. Since 2017, Vodafone Idea Ltd’s revenue market share has dipped almost ten percentage points whereas Reliance Jio’s has risen by nearly the same amount in the meantime.
Airtel Barely Loses 4% of RMS in FY18
As per a report compiled by BloombergQuint, in the same period since the beginning of FY 2018, Airtel’s revenue market share has slipped down by barely 4%. With only three telecom operators monopolising the telecom industry, the Mukesh Ambani led telecom operator boasts of having a 30% RMS.
It is worth noting that the calculation of Revenue Market Share is based on the adjusted gross revenue which factors in the interconnect charges and other deductions as well. The critical metric is given by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), and it includes national long-distance revenue as well. However, if you exclude the long distance revenue, then Reliance Jio’s revenue market share stands at 38.1% which is more than anyone in the industry right now, the reason being that Reliance Jio’s value in long distance revenue is not at all substantial as compared to other operators since it is a data-driven network.
Vodafone Idea Ltd Lost Subscribers in Its Run Up to Increased ARPU
Reliance Jio clawed its way into the top spots of the telecom industry by shipping very affordably priced plans which were never before seen in the market, along with lots of free bundled offerings to lure the customers. The tariff war which kicked off as a result of this eroded revenues extensively from the industry and forced the industry into consolidation, with some telcos also shutting operations. The introduction of Reliance Jio’s 4G feature phone, JioPhone further strengthened the telco's stronghold in the rural regions of India. The unique thing to note about Reliance Jio’s last quarter is that it managed to gain revenue from not only tier 3 and tier 2 cities, but also metros as well.
The other two major telecom operators, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea lost subscribers mainly owing to their introduction of the minimum recharge plans as a way to increase their average revenue per user (ARPU), a key industry parameter. The telcos also shed around eight crore low paying customer in their attempt to focus more on high paying consumers.
