Bharti Airtel Became Largest Telco in Revenue Terms in 4QFY21: Report

Bharti Airtel reported highest revenue, as per the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India data, India Ratings has said in a release.

"The industry-wide adjusted gross revenue (revenue: AGR, including national long-distance revenue; excluding Vodafone Idea Limited (VIL)) increased by 3% quarter on quarter (qoq) to Rs 361 billion in 4QFY21 (3QFY21: Rs 351 billion).

This increase in revenue is largely supported by 13% qoq growth in revenue of Bharti Airtel Limited (BAL), including Tata Teleservices Limited and Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Limited.

While AGR for BAL (Including Tata tele) increased significantly to Rs 164 billion in 4QFY21 (3QFY21: Rs 145 billion), AGR for Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited declined to Rs 163 billion (INR174 billion). Therefore, BAL became the largest telco in terms of revenue in 4QFY21, surpassing RJio, though by a fraction," India Ratings has said in a release.

Broadband Penetration continues to rise

The number of broadband subscribers increased to 64% of the overall wireless subscriber base in March 2021 from 63.6% in February 2021 and 47% in March 2019, India Ratings has said.

"In March 2021, the number grew by strong 12.5 million (February 2021: 7.9 million). Additionally, the average data used per user is increasing rapidly. The sliding voice tariffs, growing data tariffs, increasing data usage per subscriber, increasing data subscribers in the overall subscriber base and reducing tariff differentials among the telcos, over the last one year, indicate that the industry is moving towards a higher average revenue per user (ARPU) regime," India Ratings has said.