Jio widens revenue market share gap in Q4 after Airtel's catch-up phase

After seeing its revenue market share (RMS) lead being narrowed by its arch rival Bharti Airtel for two successive quarters, Reliance Jio was back to its gaining ways, pulling ahead of the Sunil Mittal-led telecom operator on this key performance metric in the March quarter.

Jio's strong sequential revenue growth across market categories marked by the benefits of a delayed flow-through of the July 2024 tariff hikes meant the market leader once again started widening its lead over the Sunil Mittal-led telecom operator in the fourth quarter of 2024-25, said analysts. While Jio had seen its RMS fall in the second and third quarters of the fiscal, Bharti Airtel had seen gains on this count.

Latest financial data collated by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) showed Jio gained 40 basis points (bps) sequentially, boosting its RMS in the March quarter to 42.2% while Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea's RMS dipped 43 bps and 70 bps sequentially to 39.2% and 13.4%, respectively. A basis point is a hundredth of a percentage point.


Bharti Airtel and Vi reported sequential RMS dips in the fourth quarter of 2024-25 as both companies had largely realised the full benefits of the tariff hike in the previous two quarters. The RMS or "adjusted gross revenue (AGR) market share" is a key performance metric for carriers measuring overall telecom market leadership.

As per Trai data, Bharti Airtel, despite gains in metros and rural markets, lost revenue in some urban circles (category A and B) while Vi lost revenue across its leadership and established circles as its customer losing streak continued. "As expected, Jio's Q4FY25 AGR market share has advanced as its AGR grew across categories and it also gained RMS in 17 circles," ICICI Securities said.

The brokerage, though, said Bharti Airtel remained the biggest beneficiary of the July 2024 tariff hikes with its AGR (including national long-distance, or NLD) market share surging 159 bps to 39.2% in 2024-25 compared to Jio's 26 bps advance to 42.2%.

Over the past one year, Bharti Airtel has narrowed the RMS gap with Jio, amid an ongoing fierce battle for supremacy in the telecom industry, on the back of strong market execution and revenue gains in both urban and rural markets, according to analysts.

An analysis of Trai data showed that the RMS gap between Jio and Bharti Airtel shrank to 300 bps in the March quarter from around 440 bps in the first quarter of 2024-25.

A circle-wise analysis of Trai data by ICICI Securities showed that in the March quarter, Bharti Airtel's AGR increased in the metros (20% quarter-on-quarter) and 'C' circles (+0.2% quarter-on-quarter) while it dipped in the 'A' circles (-1.9%) and 'B' circles (-0.4%). By contrast, Jio's AGR increased across categories - metros (6.9% quarter-on-quarter), A Circle (+2.6%), B (+3.2%) and C (+3.1%) quarter-on-quarter. Loss-making Vi's AGR, though, declined across its leadership and established circles by 3.4% and 4% quarter-on-quarter, respectively.

Accordingly, Jio was the biggest gainer on the quarterly AGR (including NLD revenue) front, reporting a 3.1% sequential jump to ₹29,800 crore in the March quarter. Bharti Airtel's quarterly AGR (including NLD revenue) went up 1% sequentially to ₹27,700 crore while Vi's AGR slumped 2.9% quarter-on-quarter to ₹9,500 crore.

The combined AGR (including NLD) of the top three private carriers increased 1.4% sequentially to ₹ 67,000 crore on the back of tariff hikes in the March quarter, largely propelled by Jio's revenue gains. ICICI Securities said state-run BSNL appeared to have had a "one-off gain in Maharashtra", which drove its AGR up 19.3% sequentially to ₹3,600 crore during the quarter.