Jio adjusted gross revenue up 21.3% at Rs 5,300 crore in Q3

KOLKATA: Reliance Jio Infocomm has reported a 21.3% sequential jump in adjusted gross revenue (including national long distance, or NLD, revenue) to Rs 5,300 crore in the fiscal third quarter ended December, while the Big 3 incumbents have posted on-quarter falls, stung by continuing competition from the 4G entrant.

Contrary to Jio's strong AGR surge, Bharti Airtel's AGR (including NLD revenue) fell 8.1% on-quarter to Rs 10,700 crore, while Vodafone India and Idea Cellular's fell 6.9% and 7.2% sequentially to Rs 7,000 crore and Rs 5,700 crore respectively, brokerage ICICI Securities said, analysing financial data put out by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai). Despite Jio’s strong numbers, overall “telecom industry AGR (including NLD revenue) fell 8.6% on-quarter to Rs 34,600 crore on higher competitive intensity,” ICICI Securities said.

Swiss brokerage UBS, in turn, said gross revenue (GR) of the industry also fell 9% sequentially in the fiscal third quarter “led by the reduction in interconnect usage charge (IUC) and downtrading by high ARPU subscribers despite the price hike by Jio as incumbents made unlimited bundle packs available to the mass market”. Mukesh Ambani-owned Jio, however, has reported a sharp improvement in its AGR market share (including NLD) to 15.4%, up 380 basis points (bps) sequentially, while incumbents Airtel, Vodafone and Idea have reported far more modest on-quarter gains of 15 bps, 36 bps and 24 bps to 30.9%, 20.3% and 16.6% respectively in the December quarter.

“Circle-wise AGR (data) shows Jio is already No 1 or 2 in as many as 13 circles, and has over 25% AGR market share in five circles,” Sanjesh Jain, telecoms research analyst at ICICI Securities said in a note to clients seen by ET. The brokerage said it has included NLD revenue in pan-India AGR market share in AGR calculations as it’s an integral part of a telco’s mobile wireless services.