Tariff hikes may help Airtel beat Jio and Vi on revenue share

Bharti Airtel is more likely to outperform its nearest rivals, Reliance Jio Infocomm and Vodafone Concept (Vi) on income market share (RMS) positive aspects within the coming quarters, helped by a mix of successive tariff hikes and SIM consolidation, mentioned analysts.

The Sunil Mittal-led telco’s India cellular revenues elevated about 6% sequentially within the quarter to December 2021, in comparison with the three.3% development reported by each Jio and Vi.

Analysts anticipate this pattern to proceed, with Bharti Airtel’s managing director Gopal Vittal saying on Wednesday that the telco will not hesitate to take the lead in pushing by means of one other spherical of tariff hikes in 2022 to additional increase common income per person (ARPU) to ₹200.

ICICI Securities mentioned “Airtel has constantly improved its (income) market share” because the tariff hikes taken in December 2019 and each tariff hike subsequently has allowed it to hurry up its positive aspects from SIM consolidation.

“Airtel’s Q3FY22 India cellular revenues grew 5.9% QoQ to ₹16,100 crore in comparison with Jio and Vi’s 3.3% on-quarter income development every, which means its market share wins proceed, and it appears seemingly that Bharti can preserve outperforming within the subsequent two quarters because it advantages from SIM consolidation,” the brokerage mentioned in a notice seen by ET.

SIM consolidation leads to a pointy drop within the variety of cellular SIM playing cards out there. This usually occurs when shoppers make contemporary decisions about their most popular telco manufacturers – primarily based on high quality of providers – after a spherical of steep worth hikes. Following the sharp worth hikes by the large telcos final November, Bharti Airtel seems to have an edge, in that it misplaced 0.6 million customers within the December quarter in comparison with heavier buyer losses of 8.5 million and 5.8 million for Jio and Vi respectively.

Chief government Vittal has mentioned that Bharti Airtel is at a brand new lifetime excessive when it comes to RMS at almost 36.9%, validating its technique of successful with high quality prospects. The telco’s RMS, although, is a shade beneath that of Jio, which reported an RMS of 40.2% within the second quarter of the monetary yr. Vi’s RMS is at a modest 18.6%.