Telcos garner Rs 54,218 cr gross revenue in July-Sept

New Delhi: Telecom companies earned a gross revenue of Rs 54,218 crore in the September quarter 2019 with Bharti Airtel garnering over 35 per cent share, according to Trai data.

Reliance Jio with lowest gross revenue of Rs 15,945.62 crore among private operators paid highest revenue to the government, the data showed.

While Airtel registered a gross revenue of Rs 19,061 crore, it paid Rs 1,160.63 crore, including Rs 851.3 crore as licence fee and Rs 309.33 crore spectrum usage charge (SUC), to the government.

Vodafone Idea reported total earnings of Rs 15,988.46 crore and paid Rs 1,036 crore to the government. The amount included Rs 740.88 crore as licence fee and Rs 295.12 crore as SUC, the data published by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on November 22 showed.

The government levies 8 per cent as licence fee and SUC in the range of 3-5 per cent of AGR based on spectrum holding of the company.

Reliance Jio with lowest gross revenue among private players paid highest revenue of Rs 1,372.72 crore to the Department of Telecom as the adjusted gross revenue (AGR) of the company was 73.37 per cent of gross revenue at Rs 11,699.13 crore.

Airtel's AGR was 55.83 per cent of gross revenue at Rs 10,641.33 crore and Vodafone Idea's AGR was 60.2 per cent at Rs 9,624.86 crore.

Vodafone Idea with largest spectrum holding of 1,849.6 MHz paid lowest SUC of Rs 295.12 crore among private players.

Airtel with spectrum holding of 1,588.9 MHz paid SUC of Rs 309.33 crore and Jio, with 1,175 Mhz spectrum holding, paid highest SUC of Rs 436.75 crore.

State-run BSNL recorded gross revenue of Rs 3,222.91 crore. It computed AGR as 55.37 per cent of gross revenue and paid Rs 207.96 crore -- Rs 142.74 crore as licence fee and Rs 65.22 crore as SUC-- to the government.