India Ratings and Research forecast continued revenue growth in the nation’s telecoms sector in the current calendar year, as rising ARPU and subscribers, and flagging competition lead to improved operational and financial results.

The agency expects a turnaround which started in late calendar 2019 to be boosted by a growing proportion of data subscribers fuelling additional ARPU gains, an improved regulatory environment, and a possible pick-up in data usage and enterprise business activities led by Covid-19 (coronavirus) restrictions.

It noted post-paid packages introduced by Reliance Jio and tariff hikes on selected plans by Vodafone Idea in the second half of calendar 2020 indicate an opportunity for long-term ARPU growth.

The research company’s figures for calendar Q4 2020 (the operators’ respective fiscal Q3) show Jio’s ARPU grew 15.2 per cent year-on-year to INR152 ($2.09), Vodafone Idea up 11 per cent to INR121 and Bharti Airtel 7.8 per cent higher at INR166.

It said the proportion of broadband subscribers at Airtel rose to 54 per cent from 44 per cent and at Vodafone Idea climbed to 45 per cent from 39 per cent. All of Jio’s customers are on broadband plans.

Airtel recorded average monthly data usage of 16.8GB at end-2020; Jio 12.9GB; and Vodafone Idea 12.3GB.

Jio recorded a 39 per cent rise in revenue in its fiscal Q3 and Airtel 32 per cent, with Vodafone Idea down 1.8 per cent.