Despite recent share price dips, Bharti Airtel is strategically positioned for growth, driven by investments in data centres via Nxtra, a potential tariff hike, and strong performance in Africa, alongside efforts to deleverage and expand its subscriber base in underpenetrated rural markets.
Bharti Airtel has quietly narrowed its adjusted gross revenue (AGR) market share gap with Reliance Jio, the country's largest player in the game, in the last three years. Despite Jio's aggressive entry into 4G and now into 5G, Airtel's gap with Jio, which was 6.4 percentage points in Q1 of FY21 and went up to 7.2 percentage points in Q1 of FY22, has fallen to only 4.4 percentage points in Q1 of FY24. Currently, Reliance Jio's AGR market share is 41.6 per cent while Airtel's is at 37.2 per cent.
Losing subscribers for the fourth straight month, Reliance Jio witnessed 3.76 million users leave the telecom operator in October, data from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) showed on Monday. Meanwhile, Bharti Airtel reversed three months of decline, and added 1.92 million users, indicating it has overcome the impact of the broad-based tariff hikes imposed by private sector telcos in July.
Reliance Jio's major subscriber losses continued for the third straight month with 7.96 million users leaving the telecom operator in September, even as the state-owned BSNL stood out as the lone gainer, data from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) showed on Thursday. Market leader Jio's subscriber loss has continued since July when the three private telecom operators - Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea (Vi) - brought in a broad-based hike in tariffs.
Reliance Jio on Friday reported over 12 per cent rise in net profit to Rs 4,863 crore in the June 2023 quarter, the company said in a filing. Reliance Jio had posted a net profit of Rs 4,335 crore in the same period a year ago.
The 4G service may use Reliance Retail, with a surging customer base, as the launch pad
In about two years of commercial roll out of its fixed-line broadband services, Reliance Jio has toppled 20-year-old state-run telecom company BSNL as top service provider in the segment. According to a monthly telecom subscribers report released by the telecom regulator Trai on Tuesday, Jio now leads the fixed-line broadband segment with 4.34 million customers. The segment had been dominated by the state-run telecom since its inception about 20 years ago.
Reliance Jio has informed Department of Telecom that it will not opt for four-year spectrum payment moratorium being offered by the government to telecom companies as part of a relief package, sources said. Both Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea have said they will avail the four-year moratorium on payment of dues.
Reliance Jio has sent a second legal opinion to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on the subject of the potential allocation of satellite spectrum. The letter is written by retired Supreme Court Justice L Nageshwara Rao and argues in favour of auctions, stating that any other method for allocating spectrum apart from auctions could be constitutionally unsound. Business Standard has reviewed the letter.
The launch of Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd last September, particularly the tariff war it has unleashed on its competitors, has deepened the crisis facing India's telecom sector. One offshoot of this is the major drop in earnings reported by industry leaders Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular with each passing quarter. Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com tells the story in numbers.
India's largest telecom operator Reliance Jio Infocomm on Friday reported a nearly 24 per cent year-on-year rise in its standalone net profit to Rs 4,335 crore for the June 2022 quarter. Billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio clocked revenue from operations of Rs 21,873 crore in the just-ended quarter, which was 21.5 per cent higher than the year-ago period, according to a filing.
App-based communication services providers and Indian telcos are at loggerheads over the SIM-binding directions issued by the department of telecom, which are to be complied with by the end of February 2026.
The optic fibre cable infra was with Jio Digital Fibre and the tower infra with Reliance Jio Infratel
Reliance Jio is close to finalising its contract with telecom gear maker Ericsson to roll out its 5G network in Mumbai and Maharashtra and Kolkata and West Bengal in the first phase of its launch in October. And it is going with Nokia for the lucrative Delhi circle, and Chennai, which includes Tamil Nadu, say sources aware of the development. This is the first time that Jio is opting for multiple vendors.
The company has similar pact with Bharti Infratel.
The amount from securitisation has been utilised to repay rupee debt, saving significant interest costs for the company.
While Reliance Jio added 3.65 million users in May, both Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea continued to lose subscribers.
Reliance holds 67.03% of Jio Platforms Limited and the public listing would provide an exit to many investors.
Jio Platforms Limited is likely to have a valuation of $148 billion by the time it goes public on the back of strong free cash flow and potential deleveraging, ICICI Securities said.
Abhik Sen, who tried out the new service, finds out it is good for data and apps, but calls are still sketchy
Trai had asked the Attorney General for views on Jio's free voice and data offering till March 2017, that rivals have termed predatory.
The missive has, however, polarised stakeholders, with mobile operators under COAI coming out in its support, while digital platforms under the aegis of Broadband India Forum expressing "serious concerns" around overreach and calling for a pause in implementation of timelines.
On Monday, Ambani had said the Reliance group was open to join hands with Bharti Airtel for improving telecom network for 4G services in Punjab.
The ministry of consumer affairs had sent notices to both the companies under the Emblems and Names (Prevention of Improper Use) Act of 1950, which bars use of prime minister's name and picture for commercial use.
Dalal Street is buzzing with excitement, as some of the most-awaited IPOs are gearing up to hit the market. While some of these big companies are planning to join the stock exchanges towards the end of 2025, others are likely to be available for trading by the first half of 2026.
The much-awaited soft launch of Reliance Jio's next-generation mobile services has been delayed by another month.
Company now plans to use 1800 MHz band spectrum as the primary wave while the 2300 Mhz wave will be supplementary for enterprise customers.
Jio is now present in all of the 29 states.
'The first time India has seen two consecutive blockbuster IPO years.'
A war of words between Reliance Industries' Gautam Chikermane and hacker group Anonymous India broke out on Twitter.
With the Adanis submitting an earnest money deposit (EMD) of just Rs 100 crore on Monday for the upcoming 5G spectrum auction, the apprehension among the rivals that the group is nursing ambitions of being an all-India mobile player has been allayed at least for now. Based on its EMD, analysts say it can buy spectrum worth just Rs 900 crore, whose use will be limited to enterprises and captive networks -- that too is likely only in a few circles where it has its infrastructure like ports, airports, and power stations. While getting all-India millimetre band spectrum of 400 MHz (which costs Rs 2,800 crore) is ruled out, it might choose circles like Gujarat and Mumbai to start with.
Deals between the two could earn RCom Rs 14,000 cr, says Anil Ambani.
In the third infrastructure sharing agreement between firms run by brothers Mukesh and Anil Ambani, Reliance Industries' telecom arm has agreed to use Reliance Communication Ltd's intra-city fibre network to roll out 4G services.
It came as a surprise to all stakeholders - competing telecom companies (telcos), most analysts and even the government's internal projections on revenues from the 5G auctions. Reliance Jio disrupted all calculations by paying a stiff Rs 40,000 crore to buy 10 MHz of spectrum in the 700-MHz band, globally considered a key band for efficient 5G service coverage, along with the default 3.5 GHz band and the ultra-high speed and low-latency millimetre band of 26 GHz band. So what made Jio pay almost 45 per cent of its total spend in this auction for the 700 MHz band - much more than what it rustled up even for the 3.5 GHz band?
Reliance Jio bought spectrum in the 1800 MHz band last February.
Total wireless subscribers increased from 1.1 billion, in January to 1.2 billion in February, thereby registering a monthly growth rate of 0.72 per cent.
Reliance Jio's aggressive target to reach 100 million households through the launch of the 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) could make it one of the world's largest players in this space. But this also marks a change from its earlier strategy of offering fibre-to-the home (FTTH) broadband to households. Despite its best efforts, in two years Jio has been able to connect only 7 million households with FTTH, as permission for right of way for the last mile became a major impediment and the process of laying ducts for the roll-out was slow and cumbersome.
At Rs 2,999, LYF Flame is one of the most affordable VoLTE smartphone in the market now.
The stock of Bharti Airtel, India's largest listed telecommunications (telecom) services provider, recently hit an all-time high on expectations of higher average revenue per user (Arpu), a stable market setup, and fresh revenue lines.
Surajeet Das Gupta explains why Mukesh Ambani's target is by no means impossible.
