The top telecom players are likely to report lower earnings in January-March and also post a fall in monthly Average Revenue Per User (ARPU).
Industry experts suggest the data and voice packs offered by Reliance Jio will hit the top players hard. Bank of America-Merrill Lynch is of the opinion that the full impact of Jio's free offering and existing consumers of Bharti and Idea down-trending to lower packs will be witnessed in the quarter ended March.
“This implies a 6-6.5% decline in cellular revenue for Airtel/Idea from the previous quarter and a 398/540 basis points drop in India cellular Ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) margins from October-December,” the brokerage told ET.
Credit Suisse expects Airtel to register nearly 45% on-year drop in net profit to Rs 720 crore (from Rs 1,290 crore last year).
Idea Cellular may report its second successive quarterly loss and RCom is expected to report an on-year net loss in the range of Rs 723 crore to Rs 810 crore.