Winner takes it all: India's telcos see a brighter dayWinner takes it all: India's telcos see a brighter day

The Indian telecom industry is on an upswing, with the top three telcos, Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, recording an increase in average revenue per user (ARPU) on the back of tariff hikes announced by them in November 2021.

Airtel recorded the steepest ARPU increase from INR153 (US$2.10) in the second quarter to INR163 ($2.20) in the quarter ending December 2021. Vodafone Idea's ARPU recorded an increase of 5.2% to touch INR115 ($1.54), up from INR109 ($1.46) in the September 2021 quarter.

Figure 1: Smile please: India's telcos celebrate brighter days as government intervention and higher tariffs translate into more money for everyone.
(Source: Nicolas DEBRAY from Pixabay)

For Jio, ARPU increased from INR143.6 ($1.93) in Q2 to INR151.6 ($2) in Q3. However, one needs to consider that Jio shares the consolidated ARPU, which includes home and enterprise users as well. This means that Jio’s wireless ARPU might be considerably less.