The arena of the telecom sector in India has undergone a complete transformation in the past few years. Competition has intensified as many new players have entered the sector. The cut throat competition has led tariffs to reach a new low. The sector has transformed from a growth one to one where only the fittest will survive. And survive they did. The two companies that we are referring to have managed to stay afloat in the turbulent waters. The companies are India's largest and fourth largest telecom players Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular.
But which of them presents a better opportunity to an investor? The largest or the fourth largest?
In the next few articles, we will compare Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular on different parameters. Our intention is to provide information to the reader so that he can decide for himself as to which company is better to invest in.
In this article we will start with evaluating the two companies on the basis of their subscriber and revenue market shares.
Bharti Airtel is undoubtedly the largest telecom operator in the country. Therefore, one might ask - "Is it correct to compare the market shares of the two companies? Won't this just reflect Bharti as the leader?"
In terms of size of operations, Idea undoubtedly lags way behind Bharti Airtel. In fact for quite some time, Idea was considered to be a younger brother of Bharti that was simply following the leader's footsteps. But the truth is far from this. The strategy adopted by Idea has helped it to slowly climb the ladder and gain market share. From the bottom of the market share pyramid, the company has slowly but steadily gained ground and reached the position of being the fourth largest telecom operator (by subscriber numbers) in the country.
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* Only includes subcribers in India |
Let us now take a look at the revenue market shares of the two companies.
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Idea clearly emerges as the winner in this round. But how does it rank in terms of financials and valuations? We will cover these points in the next articles.
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2 Responses to "Can Idea catch up with big brother Bharti?"
Nidhin
Mar 22, 2012Hi, looking forward to this comparison between idea and bharti.
Just would like to point out that Bharti has subscribers abroad in Africa, Srilanka and Bangladesh. The figures do not reflect those numbers...i guess.
For the quarter ended June 2019, VODAFONE IDEA has posted a net profit of Rs 49 bn (down 2607.4% YoY). Sales on the other hand came in at Rs 113 bn (up 91.4% YoY). Read on for a complete analysis of VODAFONE IDEA's quarterly results.
For the quarter ended March 2019, VODAFONE IDEA has posted a net profit of Rs 49 bn (down 576.2% YoY). Sales on the other hand came in at Rs 118 bn (up 91.9% YoY). Read on for a complete analysis of VODAFONE IDEA's quarterly results.
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S C Gupta
Mar 23, 2012The graphs of subscriber market share and revenue market share will provide greater clirity only when total subscribers and total revenue growth are also presented on the same graphs.