Telecom sector AGR jumps 10% in March quarter: Trai report

The adjusted gross revenue (AGR) of the telecom service sector rose almost 10 per cent on a sequential basis during the March 2020 quarter, according to data from Trai, which also pointed to improved realisations from customers driven by tariff hikes.

The sector's gross revenue (GR) and adjusted gross revenue (AGR) for the quarter ended March 2020 came in at Rs 67,533.7 crore and Rs 44,940.3 crore, respectively, up 5.91 per cent and 9.9 per cent, respectively, as compared to the previous quarter.

The growth in gross revenue and adjusted gross revenue (earned by companies from sale of telecom services, and other stipulated items) stood at 15.61 per cent and 25 per cent, respectively, against a year ago, as per Trai's latest report on 'The Indian Telecom Services Performance Indicators'.

The license fee, which is collected from telecom service providers on the basis of adjusted gross revenue, rose to Rs 3,604 crore in March 2020 quarter from Rs 3,270 crore in December 2019 quarter.

"The quarterly and the year-on-year growth rates of license fee are 10.21 per cent and 24.80 per cent respectively in this quarter," Trai said in the March quarter report.

Many of the other key metrics also showed an improvement.

A case in point is the monthly average revenue per user (ARPU) for wireless service, which increased 16.33 per cent to Rs 91.49 in the March 2020 quarter, against Rs 78.65 in the previous sequential quarter.

"Prepaid ARPU per month increased from Rs 70 in quarter ended December 2019 to Rs 84 in the quarter ended March 2020. However, for postpaid, ARPU per month decreased from Rs 262 in quarter ended December 2019 to Rs 244 in the quarter ended March 2020," Trai report said.