Key Points
Kolkata: Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio are set to report sequential mobile revenue growth in the fiscal first quarter, helped by higher data usage levels and strong 4G user additions, while Vodafone Idea (Vi) will likely report contraction, stung by the continuing trend of heavy customer losses...
Analysts, though, expect Airtel to report stronger average revenue per user (ARPU) growth than Jio in the April-June quarter, on the back of decent postpaid user additions and a pick-up in 2G to 4G conversions..
Jio's ARPU growth is likely to be restricted due to the robust adoption of unlimited data by its 5G users...
"Bharti and Jio should continue to report double-digit on-year sales growth in Q1FY24, and they are also positioned in the medium-term with growth levers such as subscriber upgrades, market share gains and tariff hikes...the latter, though delayed, are just a matter of time," BNP Paribas said in a report...
"A tariff hike is critical for such monetisation of network investments and a slight increase in market share in feature-phone services via the launch of Jio Bharat won't be sufficient," BNP said.. I-Sec, in turn, estimates Airtel to report a near 22% sequential fall in consolidated net profit to 2,355.4 crore in the fiscal first quarter as the performance of its Africa business is likely to be hindered by Nigerian currency devaluation..
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