Telcos’ Q3 AGR up over 4%: Trai

KOLKATA: The telecom sector recorded a near 4.2 per cent sequential growth in adjusted gross revenue (AGR) in the third quarter of FY21, helped by strong customer additions, higher mobile recharge volumes and data consumption growth after easing of lockdown curbs.

Latest data put out by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Tuesday showed all Big 3 telcos – Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and

– notched up sequential AGR gains in the December quarter.

Reliance Jio’s AGR, or revenue from licenced services, climbed 7.96% on-quarter to Rs 17,181.65 crore in the October-December period while Bharti Airtel’s grew 5.34% sequentially to Rs 11,340.19 crore. Vodafone Idea’s quarterly AGR also rose 2.37% on-quarter to Rs 6,588.46 crore, Trai data showed.

This has resulted in the overall telecom industry AGR rising 4.19% on-quarter to Rs 47,623 crore in the quarter.

A higher quarterly AGR has automatically translated in higher licence fee and spectrum usage charge (SUC) collections for the Department of Telecommunications (DoT). The licence fee mop-up climbed 4.19% sequentially to Rs 3,809 crore, while SUC collections rose nearly 6% on-quarter to Rs 1,538 crore, data collated by the regulator showed.

This is since telcos annually pay 8% of their AGR as licence fees and 3-5% towards SUC to the government.

Overall, sectoral minutes of consumption rose, with the all-India average minutes of usage (MoU) per subscriber per month from wireless services gaining 3.14% sequentially to 785 in the quarter ended December.

Access services contributed 80% of total telecom services AGR in the third quarter.

Trai’s report on the telecom industry’s fiscal third quarter performance also indicated that monthly average revenue per user (ARPU) from wireless services rose 4.93% on-quarter to Rs 101.65, as the overall volume of mobile recharges rose after easing of lockdown curbs, especially as migrants returned to work in the cities.