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Tag: Bharti Airtel Limited

  • Airtel Digital TV revenues, op profits rise in Q2 FY 2018

    Airtel Digital TV revenues, op profits rise in Q2 FY 2018

    BENGALURU: Airtel Digital TV services (Airtel DTH), the DTH segment of Indian telecom major Bharti Airtel Limited (Airtel), saw revenue grow 10 percent for the quarter ended 30 September 2017 (Q2-18, current quarter) as compared to the corresponding year ago quarter (Q2-17, year ago quarter). The segment’s EBIDTA for Q2-18 increased 16 percent as compared to the year ago quarter (y-o-y).  Over time, Airtel DTH segment’s contribution to Airtel India revenue has grown to about 6 percent.

    Airtel DTH revenue in the current quarter increased to Rs 9,639 million from Rs 8,545 million, while EBIDTA increased to Rs 3,517 million in Q2-18 from Rs 3,030 million. EBIT increased by a massive 76 percent y-o-y to Rs 1,230 million from Rs 699 million. The company’s capex investments to Airtel DTH in Q2-18 increased 26 percent y-o-y to Rs 3,191 million from Rs 2,541 million, while cumulative investments in the segment increased 9 percent to Rs 75,435 million from Rs 69,453 million.

    Airtel DTH subscriber matrices

    Airtel DTH subscriber base grew by 207,000 to 13.521 million in Q2-18 from 13.314 million in the immediate trailing quarter (Q1-18). In Q2-17, Airtel DTH had a subscriber base of 12.405 million. Average revenue per user (ARPU) in Q2-18 increased to Rs 233 in Q2-18 from Rs 228 in Q1-18 and Rs 232 in Q2-18. The segment had a higher customer churn in  the current quarter at 1.4 percent as compared to 0.9 percent in the immediate trailing quarter and 0.9 percent in the corresponding year ago quarter.

    Overall, Airtel revenues for Q2-18 at Rs 246,520 million declined by 11 percent y-o-y primarily from Rs 246,520 million. Airtel India revenues declined 14.3 percent y-o-y to Rs 168,183 million  from Rs 196,149 led by mobile drop of 16.8 percent y-o-y. The company says that the mobile market continues to experience value erosion and financial stress led by competitive pressures.

    Mobile data traffic has grown fourfold to 784 billion MB in the quarter as compared to 178 billion MB in the corresponding quarter of last year. Mobile broadband customers increased by 33.6 percent to 55.2 million from 41.3 million in the corresponding quarter of last year.

    Airtel’s profit after tax in Q2-18 declined to less than half at Rs 12,990 million from Rs 27,350 million in the corresponding year ago quarter. Net income declined to less than a fourth in the current quarter at Rs 3,430 million from Rs 14,610 million in Q2-17.

    Airtel MD and CEO India & South Asia Gopal Vittal said, “The financial stress in the industry continues due to double digit revenue decline and will be further accentuated by the reduction in IUC rates in the next quarter. This will eventually force operator consolidation and exits as we have witnessed in the recent past. Airtel remains committed to its goal of increasing revenue market share in this competitive environment by providing superior customer experience and strategically investing behind building more data capacities.”

  • Airtel-Telenor India merger approved by CCI

    MUMBAI: The Competition Commission of India (CCI), vide its letter of 5 June 2017, has approved the proposed merger of Telenor (India) Communications Private Limited with Bharti Airtel Limited.

    Telenor India and Airtel had on 1 June filed the joint company application before the New Delhi bench of the National Company Law Tribunal for approval of the proposed scheme of merger.

    Airtel recently stated that it has received the merger approval from Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), National Stock Exchange of India Limited (NSE) and Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).

    The Sunil Bharthi Mittal owned company entered into a deal with Telenor South Asia Investments to buy Telenor India’s operations in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Bihar, UP (East), Assam, and UP (West). These seven circles provide about 35 per cent to Airtel’s total revenue. Airtel will also get on some of the Nordic telco’s political liabilities.

  • Indian standards for 5G rollout to be ready by ’18, says govt agency exec

    MUMBAI: India is getting future ready and has started serious work on identifying and formalizing the standards for the rollout of 5G. The standards are likely to be ready by 2018. This was stated by the D P De, Sr DDG, Telecommunication Engineering Centre (TEC) at the 5G India 2017 Conference here. TEC is the nodal agency of the Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications, Government of India responsible for drawing up of standards, generic requirements, interface requirements, service requirements and specifications for telecom products, services and networks.

    The first 5G India 2017 Conference was organized in national capital by Bharat Exhibitions with support from COAI, 3GPP, TSDSI and saw massive participation from various telecommunication industry verticals including networks, service providers, manufacturers etc. The introductory address and inaugural discussion regarding the future of 5G was initiated by Mr. Adrian Scrase, Chief Technical Officer, ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute and Head of 3GPP MCC (Mobile Competence Core).

    “5G will be an overarching umbrella of networks rather than a replacement technology and will usher in significant economic, political and environmental benefits,” pointed out Adrian Scrase during his introductory address.

    According to industry representatives and sectoral experts gathered at the venue, the key drivers for 5G rollout and adoption is going to be massive anticipated increase in data consumption, fast increasing digitalized life and services, growth of smart cities and the need to have an all encompassing network architecture which can utilized all available spectrum band rather than replace the existing networks.

    “Connected devices, digitized lifestyle where almost every aspect of human life will be consumed digitally calls for a new paradigm shift in telecommunication eco-system,” said Shyam P Mardikar, CTO (Mobile Networks), Bharti Airtel Limited.

    “We have moved from the Voice phase to Video consumption and next phase will be Virtuality which will demand humungous data availability and networks have to evolve to keep pace. This will be a real challenge,” added Mardikar. He also pointed out that networks will have to become flat, ubiquitous and nearer to consumers in the coming days to cater to fast changing digitized life style.

    “5G will address the requirements of coming decade,” said Radhey Shyam Sarda, Director, Wireless Solution Sales, Huawei. He also pointed out that 5G architecture is targeting different spectrum bands where each will play different roles and within the emerging scheme of things, C-band and Group 30/40 is emerging as the globally harmonized bands. “Enhanced user experience, dynamic spectrum sharing, pairing of bands will be the mainstay of 5G architecture” added Sarda.

    Rajan S Mathews, Director General, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), said, “That consumers side demand, resource deployment and commercial viability will be the main drivers for the operators for 5G rollout.” “It may be easy to rollout 5G in a country like Japan or South Korea but India is a fundamentally different market with diverse needs. There would be huge financial and structural challenges. We have to make India specific case for 5G.” advised Mathews.

    VMware network function virtualisation common platform architecture has proven to be the deployment model for mobile core solutions says VMWare. It will become the foundation for 5G Networks.

    Besides the above mentioned industry leaders, the inaugural session was presented by Jalaj Choudhri, EVP (Networks), Reliance Communications Ltd; Chandan Kumar, Director – Marketing & Public Affairs, Huawei; Dharma Rajan, Lead NFV Solutions Architect, VMWare, USA.

    Experts across board did agree that sooner or later the telecommunication services will migrate to 5G architecture and time has come to start serious preparation for standardization and network up-gradation.

    Inaugural session was followed by two technical sessions which deliberated on a host of issues related to 5G ecosystem including network up-gradation, product support and development, policy & regulation, IoT, security challenges and other issues.

    Making 5G India 2017 a truly global platform to conduct business, global players such as Huawei, VMWare, Keysight Technologies, Juniper, RedHat, Rohde & Schwarz, RV Solutions and TrustinSoft showcased and presented their innovative and cutting edge technologies to 500 plus industry audience at the event.

  • Airtel mobile & DTH subs up, Jio-hit data customers & rev drop

    BENGALURU: Saying that Bharti Airtel Limited (Airtel), once touted as the largest cellular operator in the country both in terms of revenue as well as subscriber numbers, has had a tough battle with Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani’s Reliance Jio Infocomm would be making an understatement. Ambani’s largest startup in the world ever has given a run for the money to all its telecom and internet services provider peers in the country.

    As on 31 March 2017 (Q4-17, FY-17 – quarter and year ended 31 March 2017), the company had 273.6 million (27.36 crore) GSM customers in India as compared to 251.2 million (25.12 crore) in previous year, an increase of 8.9 percent. DTH subscribers for Airtel’s Digital TV Services segment (Airtel DTH) increased 9.3 percent to 12.815 million (1.2815 crore) at the end of the FY-17 from 11.725 million (1.1725 crore) at the end of FY-16. The company had 57.4 million (5.74 crore) data customers (21.0 percent of total customers) as on March 31, 2017, representing a decline of 1.5 percent as compared to 58.2 million (5.82 crore) (23.2 percent of total customers) at the end of the previous year.

    The total MBs on the network for the full year FY-17 increased by 47.3 percent to 733.1 billion (733,100 crore) MBs as compared to 497.7 billion (497,700 crore) MBs in the previous year. Mobile Data usage per customer for the full year FY-17 witnessed an increase of 31.0 percent to 1,049 MBs per month as compared to 801 MBs in the previous year. Data ARPU decreased by 4.5 percent to Rs 185 during Fy-17 from Rs 194 in the previous year.

    Revenue from operations (operating revenue) declined 12.1 percent year-on-year (y-o-y) to Rs 2,193.46 crore in Q4-17 from Rs 2,495.96 crore in the corresponding year ago quarter. FY-17 operating revenue declined 1.1 percent to Rs 95,468.3 crore from Rs 96532.1 crore in the previous year. PAT for Q4-17 declined 69.2 percent to Rs 470.6 percent (2.1 percent of operating revenue) from Rs 1,462 crore (5.7 percent of operating revenue) in Q4-16. PAT for FY-17 declined 38.5 percent to Rs 4,241.4 crore (4.4 percent of operating revenue) from Rs 6,893 crore (7.1 percent of operating revenue).

    In its earnings statement, Airtel’s MD and CEO, India & South Asia Gopal Vittal said, “The sustained predatory pricing by the new operator has led to a decline in revenue growth for the second quarter in a row. The telecom industry as a whole also witnessed a revenue decline for the first time ever on a full year basis. The deteriorating health of the industry was compounded by the tsunami of incoming voice traffic from the new operator as a result of which significant investments had to be made just to carry the incoming traffic on our network. The net result of this was a revenue decline of 7.1 percent in Q4 even as EBITDA margins eroded by 2.9 percent. FY-17 saw a muted top line growth of 3.6 percent vs the double digit growth witnessed in preceding years.

    Our long term commitment to provide the best experience to our customers continues to drive all our actions in every single aspect of the business. This belief coupled with brilliant execution of our people has led to acceleration in market share in an industry that is now rapidly consolidating,” he added.

    Airtel’s DTH segment reported 10.4 percent y-o-y growth in operating revenue to Rs 865.7 crore in Q4-17 from Rs 784 crore in the corresponding year ago quarter. Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) in Q4-17 increased 35.4 percent to Rs 97.5 crore from Rs 72 crore in Q4-16. The DTH segment’s revenue for fiscal 2017 increased 17.6 percent to Rs 3,430.6 crore as compared to Rs 2,917.8 crore in FY-16. Average revenue per customer (ARPU) in FY-17 increased to Rs 231 from Rs 226 in the previous year.

    The company’s capex in its DTH segment in FY-17 declined to less than half (declined by 52.9 percent) to Rs 138.6 crore as compared to Rs 294.3 crore in FY-16. Cumulative investments in the DTH segment at the end of FY-17 reached Rs 7,351.3 crore.

    Note: The unit of currency in this report is the Indian rupee – Rs (also conventionally represented by INR). The Indian numbering system or the Vedic numbering system has been used to denote money values. The basic conversion to the international norm would be:

    (a) 100,00,000 = 100 lakh = 10,000,000 = 10 million = 1 crore.

    (b) 10,000 lakh = 100 crore = 1 arab = 1 billion…

  • Reliance Jio capex at Rs 18k cr in Q1-18, Retail’s solid performance in FY-17

    BENGALURU: The Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani headed Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) reported its financial performance for the quarter / year ended 31 March 2017 (Q4-17/FY-17, current quarter/current year). RIL’s digital venture Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (Jio) has been touted as the largest startup in the world with investments announced to the tune of Rs 1,50,000 crore. The company plans capex at Rs 18,000 crore for Q1-18. The company says that capex investments will drop sharply from Q2-18 onward. This is indeed a huge sum, when one considers the fact that its nearest peer and the largest telecom operator in terms of subscriber base until Jio overtook it, Bharti Airtel Limited (Airtel), had capex of Rs 20,591.9 crore during the entire financial year 2016. It may be noted that Airtel has operations in other geographies besides India, and the capex number mentioned above includes those countries also. RIL claims that Jio contributes to more than 80 percent of data consumption in India.

    Further, RIL plans capex of Rs 2,500 crore for fiscal 2018 for its organized retail segment – Reliance Retail Limited (Retail segment) that had a phenomenal performance during FY-17. Reliance Retail reported revenue of Rs 33,765 crore for fiscal 2017, 60.2 percent more than the Rs 21,075 crore reported in the previous year. Quarter-on-quarter (q-o-q), the segment’s revenue in Q4-17 at Rs 10,332 crore was 18.9 percent more than the Rs 8,688 crore in Q3-17 and year-on-year (y-o-y) it was 83 percent more than the Rs 5,646 crore in Q4-16.

    The Retail segment’s EBIT in FY-17 at Rs 784 crore (2.3 percent EBIT margin) was 55.6 percent more than the Rs 504 crore (2.4 percent EBIT margin) in the previous year. Q4-17 EBIT at Rs 243 crore (2.4 percent EBIT margin) was 5.2 percent more that Rs 231 crore (2.7 percent EBIT margin) and 89.8 percent more y-o-y than Rs 128 crore (2.3 percent EBIT margin).

    The Retail segment’s Business PBIT in FY-17 at Rs 1,203 crore was 40.4 percent more than the Rs 857 crore in FY-16. Business PBIT in Q4-17 at Rs 366 crore was 9.9 percent more q-o-q than Rs 333 crore and 65.6 percent more y-o-y than Rs 221 crore.

    RIL’s Revenue (turnover) increased by 12.3 percent in FY-17 to Rs 3,30,180 crore from Rs 2,93,298 crore in FY-16. The company’s revenue increased 10.3 percent q-o-q to Rs 92,889 crore in Q4-17 as compared to Rs 84,189 crore and increased 45.2 percent y-o-y from Rs 63,954 crore.

    Overall RIL reported record annual consolidated net profit of Rs 29,901 crore in FY-17, up 18.8 percent as compared to the Rs 25,171 crore in FY-16. Consolidated net profit for Q4-17 at Rs 8,046 crore was 6.8 percent higher q-o-q as compared to Rs 7,533 crore and was 12.3 percent higher y-o-y than the Rs 7,167 crore.

    Note: The unit of currency in this report is the Indian rupee – Rs (also conventionally represented by INR). The Indian numbering system or the Vedic numbering system has been used to denote money values. The basic conversion to the international norm would be:
    (a) 100,00,000 = 100 lakh = 10,000,000 = 10 million = 1 crore.
    (b) 10,000 lakh = 100 crore = 1 arab = 1 billion.

  • Jio crosses 10-cr subs mark, offers prime membership for Rs 99

    MUMBAI: Jio has crossed 100 million customer mark on 4G LTE all IP wireless network said Mukesh Ambani in 170 days which means seven customers in every second every day.

    Jio has enabled employment opportunities for 50 lakh customers. Also, all Jio members can enroll for prime membership for a one-time fee of Rs 99. Ambani announced that the prime members can get tremendous value at an introductory price of only Rs 303/month, effectively just Rs 10/day.

    Jio today announced that in addition to its own market leading tariff plans, it will also offer its customers the option to choose the highest selling tariff plan of any of the other leading Indian telecom operators, but with 20 per cent more data than what any other operator provides.

    The existing 100 Million plus Jio subscribers can avail of the special ‘Jio Prime Membership’ programme which comes with several special benefits. First, Jio Prime Members will be able to enjoy the unlimited benefits of the existing Jio Happy New Offer for another full year or till 31 March 2018 for a nominal, one-time enrolment fee of just Rs. 99/- and a rock-bottom introductory price of only Rs. 303/- per month or effectively at just Rs. 10/- per day!

    Second, the programme will enable Jio Prime Members to enjoy the full bouquet of Jio’s applications absolutely free till 31 March 2018. This translates to additional benefit worth over Rs. 10,000/- for the Jio Prime Members.

    In addition, there will be many other attractive deals and offers from both Jio and its partners that the Jio Prime Members will enjoy under this programme.

    The Jio Prime Membership is available only for existing Jio customers and the enrolment window will remain open from 1–31 March, 2017. Enrolment for Jio Prime Membership can be done through MyJio app.

    Customers will also enjoy a completely digital recharge and billing experience to provide further convenience and ease of usage.

    Also Read:

    Jio juggernaut rolls on, wired segment wobbles

    Jio becomes top ISP, Wireline growth retards overall broadband internet subs fall in Nov-16

  • Jio juggernaut rolls on, wired segment wobbles

    BENGALURU: In November 2016, the MukeshAmbani run ‘world’s biggest startup’ – Reliance Jio or simply Jio, became the largest private broadband internet services provider (ISP) in the country as per data revealed by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) for month of November 2016 (Nov-16) with 5.223 crore subscribers. Jio’s subscriber base is wireless. Over the next 31 days until the end of calendar year 2016 (CY-16) and the month December 2016 (Dec-16), Jio juggernaut added another 1.993 crore subscribers to reach a base of 7.216 crore subscribers.In the press release announcing Reliance Industries numbers for the quarter ended 31 December 2016 (Q3-17), Ambani said, “I delighted by our country’s eagerness to adopt to a digital life as witnessed by the recordbreakinglaunch of Jio. Its comprehensive ecosystem has enabled millions of Indians to lead a richerlife through its offerings.”

    Jio is now far ahead of the number two player Bharti Airtel Limited (Airtel) which saw further erosion of its wireless subscriber base to 4.153 crore from 4.190 crore in Nov-16. Among the other three players in the top five private wireless ISP’s list, Idea Cellular saw its subscriber decline in Dec-16 to 2.704 crore from 2.84 crore in Nov-16. Vodafone, the third largest wireless ISP saw a small growth in its subscriber base in Dec-16 to 3.501 crore from 3.487 crore in Nov-16, while Reliance Communications reported a steady 1.608 crore subscribers in both Nov-16 and Dec-16. The government run Bharat Sanchar Limited (BSNL), which is actually the fourth largest wireless ISP in terms of subscribers saw its base erode to 2.036 crore in Dec-16 from 2.039 crore.The top five service providers constituted 83.93 percent market share of the totalbroadband subscribers at the end of Dec-16.

    Wireline Broadband Internet

    Besides wireless broadband, a number of players also offer wired or wireline broadband services. Among the wireline ISP’s BSNL is the biggest player by far with 99.5 lakh subscribers. BSNL’s combined wireless and wireline subscribers is 3.301 crore, which would make it the third largest ISP in terms of subscribers. The second largest wireline ISP in India is Airtel which closed 2016 with 20.4 lakh wireline subscribers, after adding just 10,000 subscribers to its wireline internet subscriber base. Airtel’s combined wireless and wireline subscriber base was 4.357 crore as on 31 December 2016. The third largest wireline broadband internet services provider was regional private player ACT Broadband lost 20,000 subscribers in Dec-16 to reach a subscriber base of 11.2 lakh. The government run Mahanagar Sanchar Nigam Limited (MTNL) also lost 10,000 subscribers in Dec-16 to a lowered subscriber base of 10.4 lakh. The fifth player in the list of top five wireline broadband internet service providers in the country is another regional player – You Broadband or You BB. There was no change in the minnow’s subscriber base of 6 lakh in Dec-16 vis-à-vis Nov-16.

    Overall, the internet subscriber base in the country grew 8.89 percent (by 1.882 crore) month-on-month (m-o-m) to 23.609 crore in Dec-16 with from 21.827 crore Nov-16. Wireline broadband subscriber base grew 0.48 percent (by 80,000) m-o-m to 1.814 crore in Dec-16 from 1.806 crore in Nov-16 and grew by 16.3 lakh from 1.651 crore as on 31 December 2016 or 1 January 2016. Please refer to figure A below.

    Leading the growth in subscriber additions in CY-16 (Jan-16 until Dec-16)were private wired broadband players Bharti Airtel , and regional player ACT  with additions of 3.7 lakh and 2.6 lakh subscriber additions respectively in CY-16. Airtel’s wired broadband subscriber base grew 22.16 percent, while ACT’s base grew by 30.23 percent during the same period (CY-16 until Dec-16). In CY-15 (1 January 2015 to 31 December 2015), Airtel had added 2.6 lakh wired broadband subscribers and grown by 18.44 percent, while ACT had added 2.5 lakh subscribers and had grown at a blazing 40.98 percent. By Sep-16, Airtel had already exceeded the number of subscribers it had added in CY-15, while ACT had crossed its CY-15 performance in Oct-16.

    public://Untitled-2_9.jpg

    Figure B below indicates the m-o-m subscriber growth in CY-16. As is obvious, though the wireline subscriber base grew 0.48 percent, the combined subscriber base of the top five wireline ISP’s shrank by 0.14 percent (reduced by 20,000) in Dec-16 as compared to Nov-16.

    The top five players have had a slower rate of growth as compared to the all India growth in CY-16 until Dec-16. The share of the top five players among all India wired broadband subscriber additions has fallen in CY-16 until Dec-16 from 85.28 percent as on 1 January 2016 to 81.31 percent as on 31 December 2016. The share of these players was 88.45 percent as on 1 January 2015.

    public://Untitled-3_12.jpg

    Other wireline broadband players in India

    MSOs’ in India have started providing internet services on the back of their television cable networks using DOCSIS technology. In general, they have started reporting double and triple digit year-over-year (y-o-y) increase in internet subscribers and revenue. The television cable players see broadband services improving their Average Revenue per User (ARPU) numbers. Three of the major MSOs and a regional MSO – Hathway, Siti Networks Limited, Den Networks Limited , Ortel Communications Limited respectivelywhose results are available in the public domain have been showing steady growth in their broadband segment over the past few quarters.

    TRAI’s definition of broadband is internet download speeds greater than or equal to 512 Kpbs.

    Notes:(1) The unit of currency in this report is the Indian rupee – Rs (also conventionally represented by INR).The Indian numbering system or the Vedic numbering system has been used to denote money values. The basic conversion to the international norm would be:
    (a) 100,00,000 = 100 lakh = 10,000,000 = 10 million = 1 crore.
    (b) 10,000 lakh = 100 crore = 1 arab = 1 billion.

    (2) TRAI reports indicate data in millions of numbers up to 2 decimal places. Hence it is assumed in this report that a figure of 0.51 million (5.1 lakh) subscribers for You BB for Dec-2015 would be granular to the nearest 10,000. While percentages have been mentioned up to two decimal places, the accuracy may vary, depending upon the exact number.
    (3) MSOs’ have a number of subsidiaries and alliances, hence broadband numbers are split as applicable. The consolidated subscription numbers of these entities could be larger. Hathway is a case in point.

     

  • Jio becomes top ISP, Wireline growth retards overall broadband internet subs fall in Nov-16

    Jio becomes top ISP, Wireline growth retards overall broadband internet subs fall in Nov-16

    BENGALURU: MukeshAmbani’s Reliance JioInfocomm Limited (Jio) replaced Sunil Mittal’s Bharti Airtel Limited (Airtel) as the largest internet services provider in the country. All the other players in the top 5 wireless internet subscriber list based on subscribers lost subscribers to the Jio juggernaut.

    However, India witnessed a 0.07 percent fall in broadband internet subscriber base during the month ended 30 November 2016 (Nov-16) to 21.826 crore as compared to 21.842 crore in Oct-16(month ended 31 October 2016).Wireless internet subscribers that access the internet through mobile devices (phones and dongles) declined in Nov-16 to 19.961 crore from 19.90 crore in Oct-16.

    Four of the top five wireline broadband internet service providers in India contributed 1.2 lakh (92.31 percent) subscribers of the 1.3 lakh wireline subscribers added across India during Nov-16 and hence retarded the fall in internet subscribers to some extent. As per data submitted to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) the total wireline broadband subscriber base grew 0.69 percent to 180.6 lakh in Nov-16 from 179.3 lakh in Oct-16). The fifth player (fourth in the pecking order in terms of number of wireline broadband internet subscribers), the public sector Mahanagar Telecom Nigalm Limited (MTNL) saw its subscriber base erode by 10,000 to 10.5 lakh in Nov-16.

    Among the 5 top wireline broadband internet players in India, the public sector telecom player Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) leads by far with 99.5 lakh total number of wireline broadband subscribers as on Nov-16. However BSNL had seen its broadband subscriber base shrink by 80,000 in CY-16 until Aug-16. Since Sep-16, BSNL has added 110,000 subscribers. The largest private sector wireline broadband internet services player Airtel had 20.3 lakh subscribers as on 30 November 2016, ACT with 11.4 lakh subscribers was next and was followed by the other public sector player – MTNL with 10.5 lakh subscribers.  You Broadband (You BB) with 6 lakh subscribers was the fifth. Overall, wired broadband subscribers in India in Nov-16 grew 0.73 percent month-on-month (MoM), while the five top players grew by 0.75 percent.

    Leading the growth in subscriber additions in CY-16 until Nov-16 are private wired broadband players Bharti Airtel (Airtel, 80,000 additions in Nov-16) and regional player Atria Convergence Technologies Pvt Ltd (ACT, 20,000 additions in Nov-16) with additions of 3.6 lakh and 2.8 lakh subscriber additions respectively in CY-16. Airtel’s wired broadband subscriber base grew 21.56 percent, while ACT’s base grew by 32.56 percent during the same period (CY-16 until Nov-16). In CY-15 (1 January 2015 to 31 December 2015), Airtel had added 2.6 lakh wired broadband subscribers and grown by 18.44 percent, while ACT had added 2.5 lakh subscribers and had grown at a blazing 40.98 percent. By Sep-16, Airtel had already exceeded the number of subscribers it had added in CY-15, while ACT crossed its CY-15 performance in Oct-16. Hence, by the end of 2016, with reports for Dec-16 to be published as yet, the two players should add a lot more subscribers than they did in CY-15.

    While Airtel is a national level player, ACT is a regional player with operations in South India, hence probably making ACT the largest private wireline broadband internet services player in South India. ACT has replaced the public sector MTNL at third place, pushing the latter to fourth spot in Aug-16 in terms of number of subscribers. Another private player among the top five – You Broadband (You BB) has added 90,000 subscribers (17.65 percent growth) in the current year until Nov-16. 

    Please refer to Fig 1 below:

    The top five players have had a slower rate of growth as compared to the all India growth in CY-16 until Nov-16. The share of the top five players among all India wired broadband subscriber additions has fallen in CY-16 until Nov-16 from 85.28 percent as on 1 January 2016 to 81.78 percent as on 30 November 2016. The share of these players was 88.45 percent as on 1 January 2015.

    Month-on-month (m-o-m), the all India wired broadband subscriber base witnessed the second highest growth in CY-16 until Sep-16 in Aug-16 at 1.03 percent, while the top 5 players had a growth of 0.28 percent in that month. 

    It is interesting to note that in percentage terms, while the All India m-o-m wireline broadband internet subscriber growth rate shows a decline the top five players show an increasing growth rate trend as indicated by the broken brown and red lines in the figure below. It may be noted further that the percentage numbers below are indicative and based on numbers rounded off to nearest 10,000, hence may differ from the number mentioned above (0.69 percent growth as opposed to 0.73 percent growth in the graph below for Nov-16).

    Other wireline broadband players in India

    MSOs’ in India have started providing internet services on the back of their television cable networks using DOCSIS technology. In general, they have started reporting double and triple digit year-over-year (y-o-y) increase in internet subscribers and revenue. The television cable players see broadband services improving their Average Revenue per User (ARPU) numbers. Three of the major MSOs and a regional MSO – Hathway, Siti Networks Limited, Den Networks Limited , Ortel Communications Limited respectivelywhose results are available in the public domain have been showing steady growth in their broadband segment over the past few quarters. 

    However, as per the data for Oct-16 and Nov-16, the contribution by other wireline broadband ISPs’ is small, just 10,000 subscribers per month were added by all the other players during these months.

    Overall broadband subscriber numbers for November 2016 including wireless and mobile

    The top five service providers constituted 82.39 percent market share of the totalbroadband subscribers at the end of Nov-16. These service providerswere Reliance JioInfocom Limited with 52.23 million or 52.23 crore (35.94 million or 3.594 crore in Oct-16);Bharti Airtel (43.93 million or 4.393 crore in Nov-16, 48.17 million or 4.817 crore in Oct-16); Vodafone (34.88 million or 3.488 crore in Nov-16, 40.19 million or 4.019 crore in Oct-16);Idea Cellular which saw a decline in subscribers (for the second month in a row) from 29.76 million (2.976 crore)  to 28.40 million or 2,84 crore;and BSNL which also saw its subscriber base decline once again from 21.46 million or 2.146 crore to 20.39 million or 2.039 crore. Reliance Communications Group which had (16.74 million 1.674 crore) in Sep-16 had already exited the top five list in Oct-16

    TRAI’s definition of broadband is internet download speeds greater than or equal to 512 Kpbs.

    Notes:(1) The unit of currency in this report is the Indian rupee – Rs (also conventionally represented by INR).The Indian numbering system or the Vedic numbering system has been used to denote money values. The basic conversion to the international norm would be:
    (a) 100,00,000 = 100 lakh = 10,000,000 = 10 million = 1 crore.
    (b) 10,000 lakh = 100 crore = 1 arab = 1 billion.

    (2) TRAI reports indicate data in millions of numbers up to 2 decimal places. Hence it is assumed in this report that a figure of 0.51 million (5.1 lakh) subscribers for You BB for Dec-2015 would be granular to the nearest 10,000. While percentages have been mentioned up to two decimal places, the accuracy may vary, depending upon the exact number.
    (3) MSOs’ have a number of subsidiaries and alliances, hence broadband numbers are split as applicable. The consolidated subscription numbers of these entities could be larger. Hathway is a case in point.

  • Jio becomes top ISP, Wireline growth retards overall broadband internet subs fall in Nov-16

    Jio becomes top ISP, Wireline growth retards overall broadband internet subs fall in Nov-16

    BENGALURU: MukeshAmbani’s Reliance JioInfocomm Limited (Jio) replaced Sunil Mittal’s Bharti Airtel Limited (Airtel) as the largest internet services provider in the country. All the other players in the top 5 wireless internet subscriber list based on subscribers lost subscribers to the Jio juggernaut.

    However, India witnessed a 0.07 percent fall in broadband internet subscriber base during the month ended 30 November 2016 (Nov-16) to 21.826 crore as compared to 21.842 crore in Oct-16(month ended 31 October 2016).Wireless internet subscribers that access the internet through mobile devices (phones and dongles) declined in Nov-16 to 19.961 crore from 19.90 crore in Oct-16.

    Four of the top five wireline broadband internet service providers in India contributed 1.2 lakh (92.31 percent) subscribers of the 1.3 lakh wireline subscribers added across India during Nov-16 and hence retarded the fall in internet subscribers to some extent. As per data submitted to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) the total wireline broadband subscriber base grew 0.69 percent to 180.6 lakh in Nov-16 from 179.3 lakh in Oct-16). The fifth player (fourth in the pecking order in terms of number of wireline broadband internet subscribers), the public sector Mahanagar Telecom Nigalm Limited (MTNL) saw its subscriber base erode by 10,000 to 10.5 lakh in Nov-16.

    Among the 5 top wireline broadband internet players in India, the public sector telecom player Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) leads by far with 99.5 lakh total number of wireline broadband subscribers as on Nov-16. However BSNL had seen its broadband subscriber base shrink by 80,000 in CY-16 until Aug-16. Since Sep-16, BSNL has added 110,000 subscribers. The largest private sector wireline broadband internet services player Airtel had 20.3 lakh subscribers as on 30 November 2016, ACT with 11.4 lakh subscribers was next and was followed by the other public sector player – MTNL with 10.5 lakh subscribers.  You Broadband (You BB) with 6 lakh subscribers was the fifth. Overall, wired broadband subscribers in India in Nov-16 grew 0.73 percent month-on-month (MoM), while the five top players grew by 0.75 percent.

    Leading the growth in subscriber additions in CY-16 until Nov-16 are private wired broadband players Bharti Airtel (Airtel, 80,000 additions in Nov-16) and regional player Atria Convergence Technologies Pvt Ltd (ACT, 20,000 additions in Nov-16) with additions of 3.6 lakh and 2.8 lakh subscriber additions respectively in CY-16. Airtel’s wired broadband subscriber base grew 21.56 percent, while ACT’s base grew by 32.56 percent during the same period (CY-16 until Nov-16). In CY-15 (1 January 2015 to 31 December 2015), Airtel had added 2.6 lakh wired broadband subscribers and grown by 18.44 percent, while ACT had added 2.5 lakh subscribers and had grown at a blazing 40.98 percent. By Sep-16, Airtel had already exceeded the number of subscribers it had added in CY-15, while ACT crossed its CY-15 performance in Oct-16. Hence, by the end of 2016, with reports for Dec-16 to be published as yet, the two players should add a lot more subscribers than they did in CY-15.

    While Airtel is a national level player, ACT is a regional player with operations in South India, hence probably making ACT the largest private wireline broadband internet services player in South India. ACT has replaced the public sector MTNL at third place, pushing the latter to fourth spot in Aug-16 in terms of number of subscribers. Another private player among the top five – You Broadband (You BB) has added 90,000 subscribers (17.65 percent growth) in the current year until Nov-16. 

    Please refer to Fig 1 below:

    The top five players have had a slower rate of growth as compared to the all India growth in CY-16 until Nov-16. The share of the top five players among all India wired broadband subscriber additions has fallen in CY-16 until Nov-16 from 85.28 percent as on 1 January 2016 to 81.78 percent as on 30 November 2016. The share of these players was 88.45 percent as on 1 January 2015.

    Month-on-month (m-o-m), the all India wired broadband subscriber base witnessed the second highest growth in CY-16 until Sep-16 in Aug-16 at 1.03 percent, while the top 5 players had a growth of 0.28 percent in that month. 

    It is interesting to note that in percentage terms, while the All India m-o-m wireline broadband internet subscriber growth rate shows a decline the top five players show an increasing growth rate trend as indicated by the broken brown and red lines in the figure below. It may be noted further that the percentage numbers below are indicative and based on numbers rounded off to nearest 10,000, hence may differ from the number mentioned above (0.69 percent growth as opposed to 0.73 percent growth in the graph below for Nov-16).

    Other wireline broadband players in India

    MSOs’ in India have started providing internet services on the back of their television cable networks using DOCSIS technology. In general, they have started reporting double and triple digit year-over-year (y-o-y) increase in internet subscribers and revenue. The television cable players see broadband services improving their Average Revenue per User (ARPU) numbers. Three of the major MSOs and a regional MSO – Hathway, Siti Networks Limited, Den Networks Limited , Ortel Communications Limited respectivelywhose results are available in the public domain have been showing steady growth in their broadband segment over the past few quarters. 

    However, as per the data for Oct-16 and Nov-16, the contribution by other wireline broadband ISPs’ is small, just 10,000 subscribers per month were added by all the other players during these months.

    Overall broadband subscriber numbers for November 2016 including wireless and mobile

    The top five service providers constituted 82.39 percent market share of the totalbroadband subscribers at the end of Nov-16. These service providerswere Reliance JioInfocom Limited with 52.23 million or 52.23 crore (35.94 million or 3.594 crore in Oct-16);Bharti Airtel (43.93 million or 4.393 crore in Nov-16, 48.17 million or 4.817 crore in Oct-16); Vodafone (34.88 million or 3.488 crore in Nov-16, 40.19 million or 4.019 crore in Oct-16);Idea Cellular which saw a decline in subscribers (for the second month in a row) from 29.76 million (2.976 crore)  to 28.40 million or 2,84 crore;and BSNL which also saw its subscriber base decline once again from 21.46 million or 2.146 crore to 20.39 million or 2.039 crore. Reliance Communications Group which had (16.74 million 1.674 crore) in Sep-16 had already exited the top five list in Oct-16

    TRAI’s definition of broadband is internet download speeds greater than or equal to 512 Kpbs.

    Notes:(1) The unit of currency in this report is the Indian rupee – Rs (also conventionally represented by INR).The Indian numbering system or the Vedic numbering system has been used to denote money values. The basic conversion to the international norm would be:
    (a) 100,00,000 = 100 lakh = 10,000,000 = 10 million = 1 crore.
    (b) 10,000 lakh = 100 crore = 1 arab = 1 billion.

    (2) TRAI reports indicate data in millions of numbers up to 2 decimal places. Hence it is assumed in this report that a figure of 0.51 million (5.1 lakh) subscribers for You BB for Dec-2015 would be granular to the nearest 10,000. While percentages have been mentioned up to two decimal places, the accuracy may vary, depending upon the exact number.
    (3) MSOs’ have a number of subsidiaries and alliances, hence broadband numbers are split as applicable. The consolidated subscription numbers of these entities could be larger. Hathway is a case in point.

  • Amazon, Smithkline odd ones in FMCG top 10 TV ads

    Amazon, Smithkline odd ones in FMCG top 10 TV ads

    BENGALURU: The first week of 2017 saw an all FMCG hold over the top 10 television advertisers list in terms of ad insertions as per BARC data. The total number of television ad insertions by the top 10 brands in week 1 of 2017 (Saturday, 31 December 2016 to Friday 6 January 2017) was 268,323 as per Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) data for top 10 advertisers Across Genre: All India (U+R): 4+ Individuals

    Spoiling that perfect 10 score in week two of 2017 were online retail player Amazon Online India Pvt Ltd at eighth place with 17,512 ad insertions and Indian music major Super Cassettes Industries placed at ninth spot with 17,250 ad insertions. The rest of the players among the top ten advertisers in terms of ad insertions in week 2 were all FMCG players.

    While music company Super Cassettes exited the list, Amazon Online India Pvt Ltd (Amazon) climbed to fifth place from eighth place in the top 10 TV advertisers in terms of ad insertions in BARC week 3 (Saturday 14 January 2017 to Friday 20 January 2017). Amazon’s ad insertions in week 3 of 2017 to promote its Great Indian Sale between 20 and 22 January 2017 increased a phenomenal 54.69 percent in week 3 to 27,089 from 17,512 in week 2. Pharmaceutical major Smithkline Beecham joined the top 10 list with 18,786 insertions(5.40 percent of total of top 10 advertisers list) in week 3 at eighth place.

    The total number of television ads by the top 10 companies in terms of insertions increased 19.98 percent to 321,923 in week 2 of 2017 as compared to week 1 of 2017. In week 3 of 2017 when compared to week 2 of 2017, the total increased by 8 percent to 347,695 TV ad insertions.

    Despite higher number of television ad insertions (5.02 percent more) in week 3 (17,444 insertions) ITC Ltd continued at tenth place. In week 2, ITC Ltd had 14,438 TV ad insertions.

    Please refer to Fig A below for relative positions of the top 10 TV advertising companies in terms of ad insertions.

    public://BARC AD week 3 of 2017.jpg

    While the first four ranks in terms of TV ad insertions in weeks 2 and 3 of 2017 remained the same, there were changes in terms of number insertions, percentage insertions with respect to total ad insertions and changes among the other ranks between weeks 2 and 3. The top four advertisers in weeks 2 and 3 were Hindustan Lever Limited (Lever), Reckitt Benckiser (India) Ltd (Reckitt Benckiser), PatanjaliAyurved Ltd (Patanjali) and Cadbury’s India Limited.