Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea (Vi), the three private telecom operators have announced their Q2 FY25 results. Looking at the results, one thing is clear, even though they lost customers, their revenues and ARPU (average revenue per user) went up. ARPU is an extremely important measure for the telcos, as it helps them determine how much they are earning from each customer. This figure, according to the telcos has stayed too low for healthy returns on investments.
Let's take a look at their ARPU in the quarter.
Read More - iPhone 16 Outperforms Flagships in 5G Performance in India
Reliance Jio vs Airtel vs Vi ARPU for September 2024 Quarter
Reliance Jio's ARPU went up from Rs 181.7 in the previous quarter to Rs 195.1 in Q2 FY25. Bharti Airtel's ARPU went up from Rs 211 to Rs 233 at the same time. For Vodafone Idea, the figure went up from Rs 154 to Rs 166.
This was a result of implementing tariff hikes. But will the ARPU gains stop here? Not at all. The ARPU of the private telcos is expected to grow for the next two to three quarters. Also, as more people start subscribing to premium plans to get the 5G offer from Airtel and Jio, the telcos will see an uptick in ARPU.
Read More - BSNL Launches 4G in Pangi Valley, Himachal Pradesh
Telcos such as Airtel and Vi are also aggressively driving their postpaid mobile subscription business. During the quarter, Airtel added 0.8 million postpaid users, while Vi added 0.4 million postpaid users. The postpaid users are high-paying customers which will help with improving overall revenues.
Bharti Airtel is the leading player in the ARPU segment, and will likely stay that way as Jio's prices are 10-15% lower than Airtel's. For Vi, despite having prices similar to Airtel, not having an ARPU is likely because of a higher mix of low paying customers.
