The A-Vo-Id Telecom Lobby of Airtel, Vodafone and Idea reported 4-6% qoq and 6-19% yoy voice volume growth. Composite voice volume growth for the top-3 incumbents was 10% yoy. Even as voice volume growth for the industry is not available yet (TRAI data that helps us compute this comes with a quarter lag), we estimate industry-level voice volume of around 6% yoy, a level where it has stayed for a few quarters now. This is interesting in the backdrop of fears of immediate sharp deceleration driven by cannibalization effect of increasing data usage.
This was the first quarter in a long time, if our memory serves us right, that all the three incumbents grew voice volumes faster than Uninor (the most aggressive challenger in the voice market with a ?cheapest in the market? service positioning) on a qoq basis. Even on a yoy basis, this was the second consecutive quarter where Idea (+18.5%) grew its voice volumes ahead of Uninor (+14.6%). Even on absolute minutes added, Idea (+31 bn yoy) added more minutes than any other player; Airtel added 20 bn, Vodafone added 14 bn, Uninor added 6 bn, while RCOM reported a yoy decline in voice volumes.
Data volume and revenue growth trends remained strong even as sequential data revenue growth was marginally below our expectations for both Bharti and Idea. Idea saw a steep decline in yoy data revenue growth to 80% yoy (from the 100%+ levels reported over the past few quarters).
