Billionaire Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd is now India's third-largest telecom operator.
India's youngest telecom operator’s revenue market share increased to 19.7 percent in the third quarter of the financial year 2018, higher than Idea Cellular Ltd, a feat achieved in just 16 months of operations. The telecom company is just 90 basis points away from becoming the second-largest.
Reliance Jio’s revenue market share increased by 584 basis points compared to the last quarter.
The revenue market share is calculated using the adjusted gross revenue (AGR) provided by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). AGR means gross revenue adjusted for interconnect usage charges and other deductions.
In the December-ended quarter, Bharti Airtel Ltd, the country's largest telecom operator, lost some market share to Reliance Jio among the top telcos. Vodafone India Ltd and Idea Cellular Ltd did see some marginal improvement in their market share.
Among the smaller players, the state-owned BSNL saw the sharpest decline in revenue market share followed by Anil Ambani-led Reliance Communications Ltd. Tata Teleservices revenue market share declined by more than 100 basis points to 4.39 percent.
Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices have sold their assets to Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel respectively. Reliance Communications is still operating as a virtual network operator, but Tata Teleservices has announced the closure.
The telecom sector as a whole saw its adjusted gross revenue decline the most in last three quarters. After an increase in the last quarter, the adjusted gross revenue again declined by 10.9 percent to Rs 27,391 crore in the December-ended quarter.
(This article has been published in an arrangement with BloombergQuint.)
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