Telcos’ AGR up 2% QoQ in July-September quarter

In the July-September quarter, Reliance Jio’s AGR rose 3.2% QoQ to Rs 24,217 crore, whereas AGR of Bharti Airtel rose 3.04% QoQ to Rs 19,841 crore. (Reuters)

The adjusted gross revenue (AGR) of telecom operators has increased nearly 2% sequentially to Rs 62,566 crore in the July-September quarter, according to data by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).

A weak growth was due to the absence of tariff hikes and fall in AGR of BSNL. The calculations of AGR include the revenue generated by telecom operators by providing local calls and data services, international long-distance, and national long-distance services. AGR of internet service providers (ISPs) and others has not been considered in calculation of AGR.

AGR is the revenue based on which the telcos pay license fee and spectrum usage charges (SUC) to the government.

In the July-September quarter, Reliance Jio’s AGR rose 3.2% QoQ to Rs 24,217 crore, whereas AGR of Bharti Airtel rose 3.04% QoQ to Rs 19,841 crore. Vodafone Idea’s AGR rose 3.3% QoQ to 7,508 crore. BSNL’s AGR fell 4.1% QoQ to Rs 1,966.4 crore.

The licence fee paid by the telecom operators to the government rose 1.5% QoQ to Rs 5,326 crore in July-September quarter, according to Trai data. The spectrum usage charges paid by the telcos to the government, rose 2.2% to Rs 836 crore. SUC, however, fell 40.4% YoY.

During the quarter, the monthly average revenue per user (Arpu) from wireless services rose 2.8% QoQ to Rs 149.66. The average wireless data consumption rose to 19.08 GB from 18.4 GB per user per month.