According to a new report, in less than three years in the telecom industry, Reliance Jio Infocomm has managed to occupy the largest revenue market share (RMS) of all the telecom operators in the April-June quarter. Also, on the same lines, Sunil Bharti Mittal led telecom operator, Bharti Airtel has also regained its position as the second-ranking telco in the industry by RMS. The new ET report highlights that Vodafone Idea, which used to rank on the second place till a few months back has slipped to the third spot as Airtel saw revenue growth in metro markets and Vodafone Idea saw a fall in its subscriber base.
Bharti Airtel RMS Standing at 30%
In the quarter ending June, Reliance Jio registered a 15 basis points (bps) sequential growth, following which it reached the RMS of 31.7%. On the other hand, Bharti Airtel registered 277 bps on-quarter for a 30% RMS. To recall, Airtel had witnessed a decline in the last quarter because of one-time bad debt write-offs which were related to interconnect usage charges from operators, the new Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) report highlights. In the same period, Vodafone Idea RMS fell down 403 bps sequentially to 28.1% as it lost market share in 19 of 22 circles.
While studying Trai data, ICICI Securities remarked, “Bharti gained market share at the cost of Vodafone Idea (VIL).” Naval Seth, telecoms analyst at Emkay Global, also said, “Jio commands the No 1 position in 13 circles and continues to enjoy a strong position in the `B’ and `C’ circles (small towns and rural markets), but its RMS expansion has been restricted in the June quarter due to a 45% sequential fall in its national long-distance or `NLD’ service revenue to Rs 80.7 crore.”
Vodafone Idea Continues to Lose Revenue in Multiple Circles
As per the analysts, the fight for revenue market share (RMS) between Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio will intensify in the coming months. Rajiv Sharma, co-head of research at SBICap Securities also pitched in, saying, “Bharti could draw level or even pull ahead of Jio on this score after it consolidates Tata Teleservices’ cellular mobility business with itself.”
Out of the three telcos, Vodafone Idea is going through the most troublesome period as its dual network integration strategy has failed to patch up the leaking revenues. In fact, the telecom operator is losing revenue share in leadership circles like Kerala, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, which bring in a total of 28% of the company’s revenue. According to Sharma, this phenomenon is triggered by “reversal of one-off adjustments or volatility in IUC payments reflected in the previous quarter’s print”. In the last two years, Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel have both lost revenue and subscriber market share to the latest telecom entrant in the country.
