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Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJio), which launched telecom operations in 2016, is now among the top two players in 18 telecom circles, even as the overall telecom market revenues fell 16 per cent to $22 billion in FY18.
Market leader Bharti Airtel is among the top two in 14 markets, and Vodafone India and Idea combined are top two in 12 markets. The country has a total of 22 circles.
Beleaguered operator Aircel’s revenue market share fell to zero as of March 31. The revenues of listed telecom companies fell 9.5 per cent in the fourth quarter of the reporting fiscal and 16 per cent for the whole of FY18, according to statistics released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. These were largely driven by the launch of services by RJIo.
Market share
RJio, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries (RIL), posted a 19.8 per cent rise in market share in the fourth quarter from the 15.2 per cent recorded during the previous quarter.
Bharti Airtelgained 130 basis points (bps) market share to 31.8 per cent, while Vodafone-Idea combined gained 110 bps to 37.5 per cent.
“With about 20 per cent pan-India market share, behind Bharti and Vodafone- Idea, Jio may appear to be number three pan-India; however an analysis of the 22 circles into which the Indian telecom market is divided reflects a better picture for the 4G entrant.
Based on fourth quarter FY18 data, Jio comes out as the market leader in five regional markets and number two in 13, and is a close number two in three circles (with the gap between Jio and the market leader no more than two percentage points),” brokerage firm HSBC Securities and Capital Markets (India) said in a note.
However, the revenue share of Aircel, which had filed for bankruptcy with the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), dropped to zero from about 3.6 per cent the previous quarter.
“Smaller telcos account for about 3 per cent of the market at the end of fourth quarter of FY18; we see this falling to zero by the next quarter. State-owned BSNL’s market share improved to 7.7 per cent from 6.2 per cent the previous quarter,” HSBC Securities added.
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