Key Highlights

  • Jio lost Rs 1036.56 crore in AGR in Q1 FY18.
  • Top three telcos drop in AGR amounted to 3-4% in the same quarter.
  • ARPU of telcos dropped 40.7% since June 2016.

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Telecom operator with dirt cheap data packs, Reliance Jio’s adjusted gross revenue (AGR) fell for the first quarter of the financial year (Q1 FY18).

Its revenue tanked 12% in comparison to Q4 FY17. Jio also witnessed the highest drop in AGR in comparison to top three telcos, a report by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) revealed on Thursday.

AGR, as defined by Department of Telecommunication, is the revenue earned by operators from non-core sources like – sale of scrap, corporate deposits, real estate transactions, handset sales and dividend income along with telecom services.

Jio lost Rs 1036.56 crore in Q1 FY18. Its losses stood at Rs 1178.61 crore in Q4 FY17.

In comparison, the drop in revenue for incumbent operators were nearly 3-4%.

India’s telecom major, Bharti Airtel’s revenues stood at Rs 9888.29 crore. Adjusted gross revenue from Idea and Vodafone stood at Rs 6160.91 crore and Rs 7089.42 crore respectively.

“Gross Revenue (GR) and Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) of Telecom Service Sector for the QE Jun-17 has been Rs 64,889 Crore and Rs 39,778 Crore respectively,” TRAI said.

However, telcos define AGR as revenue arising only that arising out of telecom services. The matter is still under litigation as telcos were accused of understating their revenue by Rs 61,064.5 crore for five fiscal years.

Further TRAI said, “Monthly Average Revenue per User (ARPU) for Access Services based on AGR declined from Rs 89.34 in QE Mar-17 to Rs 83.41 in QE Jun-17.”

Consequently average revenue per user (ARPU) for the telcos has been on a declining trend since the launch of Reliance Jio. Average ARPU stood at Rs 83.41, TRAI said.

In the April to June quarter of 2016 average ARPU of the industry stood at Rs 140.88. This was a 40.7% decline.

Source: TRAI

On the back of higher free and unlimited calling schemes, TRAI data also revealed that the minutes of usage (MOU) of operators had significantly increased post Jio’s lauch.

Average MOU for GSM customers was 428 minutes.

“On an all India average, the overall MOU per subscriber per month for GSM service increased by 5.72% from 405 for QE Mar-17 to 428 in QE Jun-17,” TRAI said.