Reliance Jio retains top spot over Vodafone Idea, Airtel in AGR for March quarter, says Trai data

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio has again emerged as the frontrunner when it comes to adjusted gross revenue (AGR) or earnings from mobile phone services for the quarter ending March 2019, says the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India in its latest report. While Reliance Jio recorded AGR of Rs 9,839 crore for the quarter, India's biggest telecom operator Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel's adjusted gross revenue stood at Rs 7,133.4 crore (1.25% decline over December quarter) and Rs 5,920.2 crore (over 8% fall from the previous quarter), respectively. Reliance Jio saw 3.76 per cent jump in AGR over the December quarter.

However, quarter-on-quarter, AGR growth for Reliance Jio this time was lower than 14.6 per cent rise it had seen in the December quarter. Vodafone Idea was the one to beat in terms of the total number of subscribers at 395.17 million in the quarter, while Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio followed with 329.36 million and 306.72 million subscribers, respectively.

The report said Gross Revenue (GR) and Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) of the telecom service sector for the March quarter has been Rs 58,414 crore and Rs 35,932 crore, respectively. While GR declined by 0.98%, AGR saw 0.34% dip during the period.

The number of telephone subscribers in India declined from 1,197.87 million at the end of December 2018 to 1,183.51 million at the end of March 2019, registering a decline rate of 1.20 per cent over the previous quarter. This reflects year-on-year (Y-O-Y) decline rate of 1.88% over the same quarter of last year. Telephone subscription in urban areas increased from 666.28 million at the end of December to 669.16 million at the end of March 2018. Rural telephone subscription declined from 531.59 million at the end of December to 514.35 million at the end of March, the Trai report.

The report said the total number of internet subscribers increased from 604.21 million at the end of December to 636.73 million in March 2019, registering a quarterly growth rate of 5.38%. Out of 636.73 million internet subscribers, the number of wired internet subscribers was 21.68 million and the number of wireless internet subscribers is 615.05 million.

Edited by Manoj Sharma

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