- Big Telecom Majors Vodafone Idea, Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel collectively posted a consolidated loss of Rs. 1 lakh crores in Quarter 2 of FY20.
- Big Telecom Majors Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel extended their gains to Monday’s second straight session, hoping the government would step in to assist the ailing industry.
Big Telecom Majors Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel extended their gains to Monday’s second straight session, hoping the government would step in to assist the ailing industry.
Vodafone Idea traded 21 percent higher at Rs 4.65 in early trade after rising over 24 percent in the previous session. On the other hand, Bharti Airtel has risen to Rs 406.05 by 3.27 percent. The scrip on Friday added 8 percent.
Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services said, “Government plans to set a minimum price for phone calls and data to raise telecommunications stocks in the telecommunications sector.”
Meanwhile, at about 10.25 a.m. (IST), Reliance Communication traded 3.39 percent higher at Rs 0.61. Chairman Anil Ambani of Reliance Communications along with four managers resigned on Saturday from the firm, which is going through the insolvency process.
Of late, the Vodafone Idea trinity, Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications together announced a net loss of Rs 1 lakh crore for the quarter ended September 2019 due to liability provision following the recent Supreme Court ruling on statutory dues.
In Q2FY20, Reliance Communications, Airtel, and Idea posted a combined loss of Rs 30,142 crore, Rs 23,045 crore, and Rs 50,921 respectively.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Friday that, following a recent Supreme Court ruling, the government intends to address the concerns of crisis-ridden telecom companies facing billions of dollars of fresh statutory liability.
“I don’t want a company to shut down operations. I want everyone to be up and running. We want the industry to have a decent number of business businesses and to thrive in their business. Not just the telecommunications sector, I dream that all companies in all industries can do business, serve their consumer customers and prosper.
Analysts monitoring the telecom sector said that if the government insists on raising duties without providing any relief, then there will be no choice but to shut down their operations. “Apart from Reliance Jio, it will be difficult for all other operators to continue operations with this form of a payout. Telecom, once the reforms poster boy, is set for a huge crash unless the government steps in, “an analyst said.
Mobile data traffic for Airtel nearly doubled in the quarter to 4,497 petabytes (PBs), compared with 2,478 PBs in the quarter of last year.
Customers of cellular 4 G data rose from 65.7 million by 57 percent to 103.1 million. The average revenue per user (ARPU) rose from € 100 to € 128.
For Vodafone Idea, the combined total revenue in the second quarter grew to approximately 11,146.4 crores compared to some 7,878.6 crores reported in the same period last year.
