India telecom operator revenue dips again despite data boom

Indian telecom operators reported Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) Rs 35,932 crore and gross revenue of Rs 58,414 crore during the March quarter of 2019, according to the latest report from TRAI.
AGR of Indian telecoms March quarter 2019Adjusted Gross Revenue fell by 0.34 percent quarter on quarter and increased 0.66 percent year on year.

Gross revenue declined by 0.98 percent quarter on quarter and dipped by 6.08 percent year on year.

Monthly average revenue per user (ARPU) of mobile phone users increased 1.80 percent to Rs 71.39 in March 2019 from Rs 70.13 in December 2018. ARPU of mobile phone users fell by 6.12 percent on yearly basis.
India ARPU in last five quartersPrepaid ARPU increased from Rs 60 in December 2018 to Rs 63 in March 2019. Postpaid ARPU fell from Rs 296 in December 2018 to Rs 261 in March 2019.

Market share of prepaid wireless subscribers declined from 95.81 percent in December 2018 to 94.42 percent in March 2019.

India’s Internet subscriber base reached 636.73 million. India has 563.31 million broadband subscribers. Wired Internet subscriber base reached 21.68 million. Wireless Internet subscriber base reached 615.05 million.

India’s mobile data subscriber base increased to 613.75 million in March 2019 from 578.20 million in December 2018.

Volume of wireless data usage increased from 14,283,256 terabytes during December 2018 to 15,850,560 terabytes during March 2019. 2G data usage was 96,560 terabytes, 3G data usage was 1,299,074 terabyte and 4G data usage was 14,454,925 terabytes during the quarter.

Vodafone Idea has a total mobile subscriber base of 394.84 million. Vodafone Idea’s 207.15  million users are in rural India.

Bharti Airtel has 325.18 million mobile phone customers and 149.14 million users are in rural India.

Reliance Jio has 306.72 million mobile phone users and 116.32 million are in rural India. BSNL has 115.74 million mobile phone customers and 36.59 are in rural India.

Tata Tele Services has 15.85 million mobile phone customers and 2.08 million in rural India.