After losing ground to Bharti Airtel for two consecutive quarters, Reliance Jio regained its lead in revenue market share (RMS) in the March quarter of FY25, according to data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). The recovery was driven by strong sequential revenue growth across market segments, helped by the delayed impact of the July 2024 tariff hikes, analysts said.
Jio’s RMS rose 40 basis points (bps) sequentially to 42.2%, while Airtel and Vodafone Idea (Vi) saw declines of 43 bps and 70 bps, taking their shares to 39.2% and 13.4%, respectively. One basis point equals one-hundredth of a percentage point.
In the previous two quarters, Airtel had gained RMS while Jio’s share declined. However, in Q4 FY25, Jio bounced back, gaining RMS in 17 circles, including metros and category A, B, and C circles.
Despite Airtel’s overall RMS drop in Q4, it continued to perform strongly in the metro and C circles, posting AGR growth of 20% and 0.2% quarter-on-quarter, respectively. However, it lost revenue in A (-1.9%) and B (-0.4%) circles. In contrast, Jio reported AGR growth across all regions
- Metros: +6.9% QoQ
- A circles: +2.6% QoQ
- B circles: +3.2% QoQ
- C circles: +3.1% QoQ
Vi continued to struggle, with AGR dropping 3.4% in leadership circles and 4% in established circles, reflecting ongoing subscriber losses.
AGR Performance – Q4 FY25
- Jio: ₹29,800 crore (+3.1% QoQ)
- Airtel: ₹27,700 crore (+1% QoQ)
- Vi: ₹9,500 crore (−2.9% QoQ)
The combined AGR (including National Long Distance revenue) for the top three telcos rose 1.4% sequentially to ₹67,000 crore, led largely by Jio’s gains. Notably, BSNL posted a one-off AGR spike of 19.3% to ₹3,600 crore, driven by performance in Maharashtra.
Annual Performance (FY25)
While Jio ended the year with a 42.2% AGR market share (a 26 bps gain), Airtel saw a bigger yearly jump of 159 bps, reaching 39.2%, indicating it benefited most from the July 2024 tariff hike.
The RMS gap between Jio and Airtel has narrowed significantly over FY25—from 440 bps in Q1 to just 300 bps in Q4, highlighting the intensifying competition between the two telecom giants.
