In Q4 of FY23, Airtel and Jio witness rapid growth in B & C telecom circles

Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel experienced faster growth in Category B and C circles during the final quarter of FY23, according to the research from ICICI Securities

Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel both reported increases in their revenue market share. In terms of adjusted gross revenue (AGR), the telecom sector showed increase of 1.4% QoQ and 9.1% YoY in Q3 FY23, reaching Rs 560 billion. In a research from ICICI Securities, Airtel's AGR market share was 36.5%, up 57 basis points year over year. By YoY, Airtel's AGR increased by Rs 20 billion. Reliance Jio experienced a 24 billion rupee YoY increase in AGR at the same time. Jio has a 41.7% AGR market share.

Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel experienced faster growth in Category B and C circles during the final quarter of FY23, according to the research from ICICI Securities. In accordance with the research, Jio and Airtel's growth in metro areas was flat. ICICI Securities further reported that Vodafone Idea's AGR market share decreased by 40 basis points QoQ to 16.6%. Under-performance in leadership circles was to blame for this. Industry AGR including National Long Distance(NLD) increased to Rs 2,188 billion in FY23, up 15.1% year over year.

Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, according to TRAI data, added 1.65 million and 1.28 million mobile users, respectively, in January 2023 to achieve user bases of 426.17 million and 368.89 million. However, Vodafone Idea (Vi) had a loss of around 1.36 million mobile subscribers in January, bringing its total user base down to 239.96 million. With a rise of 2.8 million new wireless broadband users (4G/5G) in January 2023, Airtel maintained its lead over Jio and Vi, who reported increases of 1.7 million and 1.1 million users, respectively.

In another research, Kotak Institutional Securities stated that pricing increases for the telecom industry may be postponed until 2024. The reason for this is the impending general elections. This would undoubtedly have an impact on the carriers' ability to boost revenues and raise profit margins despite massive 5G development.

Even without any pricing increases, Airtel and Jio saw an increase in their revenue market share. The only private telecom company in this situation that is losing money is Vodafone Idea (Vi).