SUC in FYQ3 plunges over 42% vs FYQ2, Airtel outpaces Jio on AGR: Trai data

Spectrum usage charge (SUC) collections for the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) plunged over 42% sequentially to Rs 811 crore in the December quarter, FY23, after the government stopped charging this statutory fee on airwaves acquired from last year’s 5G auctions, and onwards.

The government’s licence fee collections, though, rose 2.24% on-quarter to Rs 5, 031 crore in the October-December period, the latest operator performance data put out by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) Wednesday said.

Telcos pay license fees and SUC to the government as a percentage of adjusted gross revenue (AGR) which grew 1.49% sequentially in the fiscal third quarter to Rs 62,904 crore, indicating a tapering of the gains from the tariff hikes taken by private carriers in November 2021.

Quarterly SUC takings plunged as the DoT, in late-June 2022, scrapped the 3% floor earlier applicable on this levy. Further, after it decided not to charge SUC from last July’s 5G airwave auction onwards, telco payouts towards this fee reduced to under 1% of AGR from around 3-4% earlier. Telcos continue to pay 8% of their AGR as licence fees to the government.


Operator performance data put out by Trai showed that second ranked Bharti Airtel notched up the fastest sequential AGR growth in the December quarter among the three private carriers, outpacing market leader Reliance Jio while Vodafone Idea reported a fall.

Airtel’s quarterly AGR, or revenue from licensed services, grew 2.22% sequentially to Rs 18, 290.13 crore in the October-December 2023 period, while Jio’s rose 1.78% to Rs 22, 586.32 crore.

Loss-making Vi’s AGR fell 2.01% at Rs 7, 328.74 crore as compared to Rs 7,478.73 crore in the quarter before, signifying the cash strapped telco’s continued struggle to compete effectively with peers amidst fundraise woes.

Trai has also included the applicable gross revenue (ApGR) numbers for the telecom sector in the December quarter performance report. This is since just over a year back, DoT had revised the definition of AGR and introduced the concept of ApGR, which is determined by excluding all non-telecom revenue earned by telcos from their gross revenue (GR).

Thereafter, AGR is determined from ApGR by further removing more non-telecom service-related items, including roaming revenue passed onto other eligible/entitled telecommunication services providers. Access services contributed 81.11% to total telecom services AGR in the fiscal second quarter.

Overall, average minutes of usage per subscriber per month from wireless services rose 2.79% sequentially, to 919 minutes in the quarter.

Trai’s report on the telecom industry’s fiscal third-quarter performance also indicated that monthly average revenue per user (ARPU) from wireless services rose 2.79% on-quarter to Rs 141.14.