Telecom industry records best AGR at Rs 55,151 crore during Oct-Dec

The adjusted gross revenue (AGR) of the telecom industry grew 3.07% sequentially and 15.81% on year to Rs 55,151 crore during the October-December 2021 quarter, which is the highest so far, underlining that the revenue of the top two operators is growing at a brisk pace. t

The AGR for the January-March quarter is expected to be even better as the tariff hikes undertaken by the operators would fully reflect during this period. The AGR data was released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Thursday.

In fact, this is second consecutive quarter that the industry AGR has been over Rs 50,000 crore. The industry AGR had started declining after the entry of Reliance Jio in September 2016.

The AGR of telecom industry stood at Rs 53,383 crore in April-June 2016 but it declined to Rs 50,539 crore in July-September 2016 and after that, the AGR never breached the Rs 50,000 crore figure till July-September 2021.
But 2021 can be termed as a good year for the Indian telecom sector. As work from home became the norm due to COVID-19, telecom industry has seen its revenue reach new heights. All the operators have managed to increase their revenues during the year.

As per analysts, the revenues of telecom sector would grow again in 2022 led by December 2021 prepaid tariff hikes of 20% by all the operators. Further, telecom operators may again raise tariffs in the coming months as there was little churn because of the tariff hike. In fact, the active customer base of industry has risen after the hikes.

Bharti Airtel expects to reach an Arpu of Rs 200 this year. The company had reported an Arpu of Rs 163 at the end of December. Similarly, Vodafone Idea has been vocal about increasing the Arpu for telecom industry, though the company has not shared any specific number.